01
Bar Hemingway
A small panelled room behind the lobby. Colin Field's heirs still pour the best dry martini in Paris. Best taken before dinner, alone or with one other.
1er arrondissement · Paris, France
Ritz Paris
The address on the square — gilded, unhurried, kept to the standard of a house that has hosted Paris for more than a century.
The verdict
The house comes to you. After the four-year restoration, the Ritz returned without the stiffness that lesser palaces affect — gilded, yes, but warm, and the bar still pours the city's best martini.
From the editors · Vedere House
The particulars
- Opened
- 1898
- Style
- Belle Époque
- Suites
- 71
- Best for
- A grand evening
- Season
- Year-round
The Ritz is the house you come to when you want Paris to be exactly what you remember. The courtyard is still the first moment, a deep quiet before the city. The bar at the back still pours a martini the old way.
“A deep quiet before the city.
”
Ask for a suite on the Place Vendôme side. Take breakfast in the garden before the room fills. The pool below is worth an early hour, a rare thing to have mostly to yourself in the middle of the first arrondissement.
Keep an evening free for nothing at all — a drink at the Hemingway, a walk back through the gardens of the Palais Royal, a late arrival to one's room with the lamps already on.
Signature moments
02
An Hour at the Pool
Below ground, with a Roman vault and warmer water than you expect. Best at seven; the room is rarely yours alone after eight.
03
Breakfast in the Garden
The internal garden — the Jardin de l'Espadon — is the best room of the house. Take breakfast there before the service fills.
Inside the house
Pair with
If you go, also go here.
Paris
Plénitude
The grand evening — Hemingway first, Donckele's eight courses second. Take a car back, not a walk; arrive at the suite past midnight.
Paris
A Private Sunset on the Seine
Boarding is fifteen minutes from the Place Vendôme. The hour on the water before the Hemingway, then a late return through the Palais Royal.
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