Hôtel de Crillon – a palace built for kings, run for guests

On the north side of the Place de la Concorde, where the Luxor obelisk catches the last of the Paris light, the Hôtel de Crillon has stood since architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel raised its Corinthian colonnade for Louis XV in 1758, one of twin palaces flanking the Rue Royale. It passed to the Crillon family before becoming a hotel in 1909, and today, run by Rosewood since a four-year rebuild completed in 2017, it remains one of the most intimate grand hotels of its size, favouring the feel of a private residence over the bustle of a typical palace. The MICHELIN Guide recognises it with Two Keys, a distinction for houses whose character and craft go well beyond the ordinary luxury checklist. Behind the listed façade and the gilded Salon des Aigles, 124 rooms and suites, a Rosewood spa with a mosaic-lined pool, and a changing cast of restaurants and bars keep the eighteenth-century shell in constant, confident use.

01The house

The building's story begins not as a hotel at all. In 1758, King Louis XV commissioned the most prolific architect of his day, Ange-Jacques Gabriel, to build two palaces flanking what would become the Place de la Concorde, with the Rue Royale running between them. The eastern twin remains the Hôtel de la Marine; the western one, first occupied by the art patron Louis Marie Augustin, Duke of Aumont, would later take the Crillon name.

In 1788 the building passed into the hands of the Crillon family, who lived there for more than a century. The Société du Louvre acquired the property in the early 1900s and commissioned architect Walter-André Destailleur to convert it into a hotel; the Hôtel de Crillon gave its first gala dinner in its reception rooms on 11 March 1909 and opened its doors to guests the following day. Its Corinthian colonnade and sculptures by Guillaume Coustou have made the façade a registered historic landmark since 1900, and in September 2018 Atout France designated the Crillon an official Palace, the highest grade awarded to French hotels.

The house's most recent reinvention came between 2013 and 2017, when a renovation led by architect Richard Martinet restored the listed façades and the second-floor reception salons, while interior designers Aline Asmar d'Amman, Tristan Auer, Chahan Minassian and Cyril Vergniol reworked the rest of the 16,749 square metre building for its new operator, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts.

02Rooms and suites

The Crillon counts 124 keys in total: 78 rooms of between 32 and 45 square metres, 36 suites, and ten signature suites of up to 350 square metres, several with private terraces. Rooms come with marble bathrooms, mirrors with built-in televisions and a butler service, the residential styling signed by Aline Asmar d'Amman running through every category.

Insider tip

Book restaurants on +33 1 44 71 15 17; rooms on +33 1 44 71 16 00.

The signature suites carry the house's history most visibly. The Suite Duc de Crillon occupies the family's former private chapel, rich with gilding; the Suite Marie-Antoinette preserves the room where the young queen is said to have practised piano; and the Suite Bernstein, with its 1,200-square-foot flower-bordered terrace and Eiffel Tower views, recalls the composer's stays at the hotel. On the fourth floor, two suites known as Les Grands Appartements were decorated by Karl Lagerfeld, who could combine them into a 3,606-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment with Carrara marble bathrooms and a Louis XVI-inspired canopy bed.

03Where to eat

The Crillon's gastronomic table for almost a decade, L'Écrin, closed for good on 31 December 2025, ending the run that had opened the restaurant in 2017 and later won it a MICHELIN star under chefs Christopher Hache and then Boris Campanella; the hotel says the closure is part of a deliberate evolution of its dining, not a retreat from ambition.

In its place, the kitchen energy now centres on Nonos par Paul Pairet, opened in January 2023 by the Shanghai-based, Top Chef-judging chef after more than fifteen years running the three-MICHELIN-starred Ultraviolet. Nonos revives the French grill tradition with meats matured on site and cooked over a Josper oven, its Art Deco dining room designed by Tristan Auer; signature dishes include a Simmental onglet with crisp fries and béarnaise, and a Gruyère soufflé finished tableside with warm cheese cream. Alongside it, the all-day Comestibles counter serves a shorter menu from morning until late, and Butterfly Pâtisserie, overseen by pastry chef Matthieu Carlin, sells cakes and chocolates from a jewel-box boutique. For breakfast, light lunches and the house afternoon tea, guests head to Jardin d'Hiver, open daily from 7am to 10pm with tea service from Thursday to Sunday.

04The bar

Bar Les Ambassadeurs sits beneath a heritage-listed painted ceiling and looks directly onto the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde. Live music accompanies champagne and seasonal cocktails, and the bar's menu now frames its drinks as a journey through the house's own history, turning nearly three centuries of heritage into contemporary serves.

05Spa and wellbeing

Sense, A Rosewood Spa occupies the ground floor alongside a hair salon by David Lucas. Its indoor pool, built during the 2013–2017 renovation and set beneath skylights, is lined with roughly 17,600 gold mosaic scales and surrounded by residential-style furnishings and a sculpted rock wall, a small but striking space rather than a sprawling wellness floor. The spa also offers a hammam, sauna, experience showers and a 24-hour fitness studio.

06The neighbourhood

The address is as central as Paris allows: 10 Place de la Concorde, at the foot of the Champs-Élysées, with the Tuileries Garden and the Louvre within walking distance. Directly across the Rue Royale stands the Crillon's identical twin, the Hôtel de la Marine, built to the same Gabriel design and until 2015 the headquarters of the French Navy. The square itself, scene of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette's execution in 1793, remains one of the grandest public spaces in Europe, and the Crillon's upper rooms and terraces look straight across it.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.