Le Meurice – the Palace that keeps Paris's artists close

Le Meurice opened in 1815 and moved into its present building at 228 rue de Rivoli, opposite the Tuileries Garden, in 1835. Two centuries on, it is still the address by which other Parisian palace hotels measure themselves. Dorchester Collection has run the hotel since 1997, and in 2011 Le Meurice became the first hotel in France to receive the state's official Palace distinction. Salvador Dalí kept rooms here for over thirty years and Picasso held his wedding dinner under its roof, a history that Philippe Starck drew on when he reworked the public spaces in 2007. Alain Ducasse has overseen every dish served at the hotel since 2013, and his restaurant now carries two MICHELIN stars. The MICHELIN Guide itself awards the hotel Three Keys, its highest distinction. Nothing here feels borrowed from elsewhere; everything is, unmistakably, Le Meurice's own.

01The house

The site predates the hotel: rue de Rivoli's arcades, designed by Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine, were built in 1811 facing the Tuileries, and property developer François Corbié later built Le Meurice within them. The hotel took the name of its first owner, Charles-Augustin Meurice, whose family had run a hotel in Calais aimed at British travellers crossing the Channel. The Wikipedia entry on the hotel records that the hotel was opened in 1815, and that in 1835, Le Meurice moved from Rue Saint Honore to its current location on the Rue de Rivoli, in a new luxurious building.

Royal and technological firsts followed. Queen Victoria's 1855 state visit prompted the renovation of the entire first floor, and in 1889 Le Meurice became the first hotel in Paris to have a telephone. A two-year renovation completed in 1907, under architect Henri Nénot, added the frescoes, from 1905 to 1907, under the leadership of the architect Henri Nénot, welcomed the additions of academic painter Théophile Poilpot's two frescoes, executed in a Commedia dell'arte spirit, which still decorates the dining room of the restaurant le Meurice Alain Ducasse. Original features including the Grand Salon Pompadour, the Salon Fontainebleau, the dining room with its marble, bronzes and pilasters, as well as the hall's wrought-iron glass roof survive from this era, with decorative artists Lavalley, Faivre and Poilpot responsible for the frescoes, mouldings and gilding of the period.

Le Meurice joined Dorchester Collection in 1997, adding a new chapter to its long and storied history, under general manager Franka Holtmann. A decade later, Philippe Starck became one of the first designers the group worked with, drawing his new interior touches from the creativity and playfulness of artist Salvador Dali who famously made Le Meurice his second home. Forbes Travel Guide calls it, housed in the oldest palace in France, a hotel that has been part of the Paris landscape since 1835, noting it has undergone five major renovations, most recently in 2016, when Starck returned to refresh the restaurants and bar.

02Rooms and suites

Le Meurice counts 121 rooms and 39 suites, decorated in the Louis XVI style with fabrics from Rubelli and Braquenié, Italian marble bathrooms and full soundproofing. For more than a decade the rooms, suites and apartments have been entrusted to decorator Charles Jouffre, founder of the famous Lyon tapestry workshops, working alongside designers Margaux Lally and Luc Berger on the Pompadour suite and roughly fifty further rooms and suites.

Insider tip

First hotel in France to receive official Palace status, in 2011; Dorchester Collection since 1997.

At the top of the building sits the Belle Etoile Penthouse Suite, a 620m² apartment with a 300m² private terrace, a private kitchen and skyline views stretching from Notre-Dame to the Eiffel Tower. From its rooftop you can see 18 of Paris's most famous landmarks, a vantage point unmatched by almost any other suite in the city. Curiously, the hotel's grandest historic rooms sit one floor up rather than at the top: on the first floor are two presidential suites and a junior suite, all formally decorated in the 18th-century Louis XVI style, a historic touch, since the elite stayed on the ground level before elevators were introduced into hotels.

The hotel continues to renew itself floor by floor. Dorchester Collection's own site describes a modern-day Versailles of newly-restored rooms and suites, and this fall, the iconic hotel will debut 15 redesigned rooms and suites on its sixth floor by architectural duo Lally & Berger, where hand-painted De Gournay wallpaper, with delicate natural motifs that echo the gardens below, brings a quietly artisanal note to otherwise classical interiors.

03Where to eat

Restaurant le Meurice Alain Ducasse is overseen by Alain Ducasse with executive chef Amaury Bouhours, and has become the epicurean address in Paris, presenting a new way of enjoying its two-MICHELIN-starred cooking beneath Poilpot's century-old frescoes. Philippe Starck reworked the dining room again in May 2016, instilling yet another impetus to the hotel spaces, particularly in the restaurant. For a closer view of the kitchens, the Chef's Table is open for lunches and private dinners for 4 to 8 people.

Restaurant Le Dalí, designed by Starck and named for the hotel's most famous long-term guest, serves seasonal French cooking beneath a design showpiece: a massive 1,560-square-foot gold and ochre mural created by Ara Stark, the designer's daughter, which covers the ceiling.

Pastry chef Cédric Grolet's trompe-l'œil sculpted fruit, the renowned Fruits Sculptés, appears throughout the hotel's restaurants, brunch and tea menus, and also at his own boutique, La Pâtisserie du Meurice, open Wednesday to Sunday, from noon until sold out.

04The bar

Bar 228 is now a sought-after spot where visitors settle down amongst the deep leather armchairs and lose themselves in nightly live jazz, beneath a ceiling and walls that still carry the room's oversize 1907 Lavalley frescoes. It remains one of the few Parisian palace bars where the décor, rather than the cocktail list alone, does most of the talking.

05Spa and wellbeing

La Maison Valmont pour Le Meurice is the only Valmont spa in Paris, combining a cosmetics boutique with Le Spa: four treatment rooms, including two for couples, hammams, a sauna, a relaxation room and an outside terrace on rue de Rivoli. Signature treatments include a Japanese-inspired Head Spa ritual, a Grand Hydrafacial and the Valmont Facial Ritual using the house's collagen mask.

The spa opens daily from 9am to 7pm, with treatments bookable from 10am; the adjoining fitness studio, fitted with Technogym equipment, runs from 5am to midnight, making it one of the more flexible gyms among the Paris palaces.

06The neighbourhood

Le Meurice stands directly opposite the Tuileries Garden, between Place de la Concorde and the Louvre, a five-minute walk from the museum's entrance. The Eurostar terminal at Gare du Nord is around 15 minutes away by car, making the hotel a natural first or last stop for travellers arriving from London. The rue de Rivoli arcades that frame its façade date to 1811, designed by Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine as part of Napoleon's remodelling of this stretch of the city.

07Making the most of a stay

The hotel offers flexible early check-in and leisurely check-out, letting guests shape the day around the Tuileries rather than a clock. Up to two small dogs under 7kg are welcome per room, at a daily charge to cover deep cleaning, though they are not permitted in Bar 228, the Ducasse restaurant or the spa; parking is complimentary for guests.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.