Mandarin Oriental, Paris

Three summers after the financial crisis, in June 2011, a new hotel opened at 251 rue Saint-Honoré with a courtyard garden at its centre and a chef better known for molecular cooking at its restaurant. Mandarin Oriental, Paris was the Hong Kong group's first house in France and arrived at a moment when the city's grand hotels were all closing for renovation to keep up with newcomers like it.

History

The building had a long life before the hotel. Its street facade dates from the 1930s and was kept, while the interior was rebuilt for the hotel. Mandarin Oriental signed the project in the late 2000s as part of a push into European capitals that also brought the group to Barcelona and Milan. The opening was staged with Thierry Marx, who had earned two Michelin stars at Cordeillan-Bages in Pauillac and who gave the Paris restaurant, Sur Mesure, two stars within a year of opening. In 2014 the hotel received the Palace distinction, the French grade above five stars, in the same round as the Peninsula and the Shangri-La.

Architecture and design

Jean-Michel Wilmotte led the architecture, keeping the stone facade and its Art Deco lines and organising the new building around a central garden courtyard. The interiors are by Sybille de Margerie, who worked in a palette of white, cream and black with references to French couture, the fashion houses of the street being the hotel's neighbours. The Sur Mesure dining room, with its walls draped in white fabric, was designed by Patrick Jouin and Sanjit Manku, the pair who had also done Alain Ducasse's rooms at the Plaza Athénée.

The garden is the organising idea. Rooms and the Camélia restaurant open onto it, and in summer it becomes the hotel's main dining terrace, a rare thing in the first arrondissement.

Rooms and suites

There are 138 rooms and suites, large by Paris standards, with many of them looking into the courtyard rather than onto the street. The top suites include terraces with views over the roofs of the first arrondissement.

Dining

Sur Mesure par Thierry Marx opened with the hotel and held two Michelin stars for most of its life. Camélia is the all-day restaurant on the garden, with a lighter menu; breakfast is served there and, in warm months, at tables set out in the garden itself. Bar 8 takes its name from the hotel's house number in the group's numbering and has a marble bar and a terrace on the courtyard. The Cake Shop, off the lobby, sells the pastry kitchen's work to passers-by, a practice the Paris Palaces have since copied.

Wellness

The spa occupies the lower levels with treatment rooms, a hammam and a 14-metre indoor pool, plus a fitness room. It follows the group's standard treatment menu with Paris-specific additions.

Weddings and events

The hotel has meeting and reception rooms on its lower floors and uses the garden for summer receptions. Weddings are held in the salons and the garden. Capacities are not in our source material and are not stated here.

Location

Rue Saint-Honoré at this point runs between place Vendôme and rue Royale, with the Tuileries one street south. The Louvre, Opéra Garnier and the Palais-Royal are within walking distance. Métro Tuileries and Concorde are the nearest stations, Paris-Charles de Gaulle the nearest major airport. For a luxury hotel in Paris this close to place Vendôme, its quiet courtyard is the point of difference.