Hôtel Raphael

Two hundred metres from the Arc de Triomphe, at 17 avenue Kléber in the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris, Hôtel Raphael opened in 1925 and is still run by Les Hôtels Baverez, the group descended from its founder, which makes it one of the few grand hotels in the capital never to have passed to a chain. With 83 rooms and suites, the luxury hotel is known for panelled interiors that have changed little in a century, for its English bar, and for a roof garden on the seventh floor facing the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.

History

The hotel was created by Léonard Tauber, who had already opened the Hôtel Regina on the place des Pyramides in 1900 and the Majestic on avenue Kléber in 1908. He named his third hotel after the Renaissance painter Raphael and intended it for a clientele looking for discretion rather than display, on a residential avenue between the Étoile and the Trocadéro. The Majestic next door was sold to the French state in 1936 and became an international conference centre; the Raphael stayed in the family.

Tauber's descendants, the Baverez family, still own and run the hotel together with the Regina Louvre and the Majestic Hôtel-Spa. That continuity explains the atmosphere of the house, which has kept its original plan, its furniture and much of its decoration, where most hotels of its generation have been rebuilt from the inside.

Architecture and design

The building is a stone-fronted block of the 1920s in keeping with the Haussmann-era avenue. Inside, the hotel was decorated in an eighteenth-century spirit rather than in the Art Deco fashion of its time: a long gallery with wood panelling, tapestries, oil paintings and oriental rugs leads from the entrance to the bar and the salons. A painting by J.M.W. Turner hangs in this gallery. The Bar Anglais, with its dark panelling and red leather, is the room most associated with the hotel.

Rooms and suites

The 83 rooms include 29 suites. They are large by Paris standards, with high ceilings, period furniture, panelled walls and marble bathrooms. Several suites on the upper floors have terraces, and the top-floor suite opens on to the roof garden with the Arc de Triomphe in view.

Dining

The roof garden, Les Jardins Plein Ciel, becomes an open-air restaurant and bar in the warmer months, with a 360-degree view over the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and the Sacré-Coeur. The restaurant on the ground floor serves French cooking in a panelled dining room, and the Bar Anglais serves cocktails and light dishes through the day.

Weddings and events

The hotel hosts meetings, private dinners, family celebrations and receptions in its salons on the ground floor, and the roof garden is used for cocktails and small receptions in season. The scale suits boards, launches and intimate weddings rather than large conventions, which is part of its appeal for planners who want a single party to have the house to itself.

Location

Avenue Kléber runs from the place Charles-de-Gaulle, the Étoile, down to the Trocadéro. Kléber station on metro line 6 is at the corner of the hotel, and Charles de Gaulle-Étoile, served by lines 1, 2 and 6 and the RER A, is five minutes on foot. The Palais de Chaillot and its terrace facing the Eiffel Tower are ten minutes away, and the Champs-Élysées begin at the top of the avenue. The drive from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport takes about 40 minutes.