Cheval Blanc Paris

Cheval Blanc keeps a particular kind of arrival. The entrance is discreet, almost missed, and the lobby is built to slow you down before the lift opens onto the river.

The rooms take the building's best advantage — wide river-facing windows, heavy drapery, a bathtub positioned so the Seine is the view when you lower yourself into it. In a city with no shortage of grand hotels, this one has chosen quiet over volume.

Request a corner suite on a high floor. Ask for the bath run before you return from dinner. And keep an early morning free for the pool beneath the glass roof, taken alone.