Saint James Paris – a château in the city, once a balloon field

Madame Thiers built this neoclassical mansion in 1892 for scholarship students. Today it is a hotel of 48 rooms with a library bar, a Guerlain spa and a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Through a stone gatehouse on a quiet square in the 16th arrondissement, past a fountain, stands a neoclassical mansion that looks as though it belongs in the countryside. Saint James Paris has a history as unusual as its setting: a former balloon field, a home for scholarship students, an English gentlemen's club and, since the 1990s, a hotel.

It stands at 5 place du Chancelier-Adenauer, near the avenue Foch and the Bois de Boulogne, in the 16th arrondissement, and has been a member of Relais & Châteaux since 2011.

01Madame Thiers and the Fondation Thiers

According to France Today, the site was once used as a field for hot-air balloons. In 1892 the widow of Adolphe Thiers, the former French president, built the mansion here to house the Fondation Thiers, which supported brilliant young scholars. Students lived here until 1985.

The building then became the Paris home of the Saint James Club, an English-style gentlemen's club, and in the 1990s it was partly converted into a hotel. The club is still based here.

02From Bambi Sloan to Laura Gonzalez

The Bertrand family, owners of the Relais Christine on the Left Bank, bought the property in 2008. In 2010 they asked the Franco-American decorator Bambi Sloan to transform it, and the result – Harris tweed on the walls, leopard prints, balloon motifs recalling the site's past – was described as crazy chic. In 2021 the hotel was redesigned in full by the architect Laura Gonzalez.

There are 48 rooms and suites, each decorated individually, along with apartments in the two gatehouse pavilions and a villa of four apartments overlooking a garden.

03The library bar

The original wood-panelled library of the mansion is now the bar, kept largely as it was. It is the room in which the building's past is most present, and it serves the hotel's own cocktails in a setting with a decidedly English air. It is open daily to members of the Saint James Club and to the public from Monday to Saturday in the evening.

04Bellefeuille and the Guerlain spa

The restaurant, Bellefeuille, takes nature as its theme in both décor and cooking. Under the chef Grégory Garimbay it celebrates French gastronomy and regional produce, and it holds a Michelin star as well as a green star.

The spa is one of only two Guerlain spas in Paris: 400 square metres with three treatment rooms, a gym and a light-filled pool. The enclosed garden has a terrace for warmer days.

05Between avenue Foch and the Bois

The Bois de Boulogne lies to the west, the Étoile and the Arc de Triomphe to the east along avenue Foch. The whole city is in VERA PI's guide to Paris, and more great hotels are collected on metromode.co.

06Making the most of a stay

Begin the evening in the library bar and book Bellefeuille for dinner. Spend a morning in the Guerlain spa, and in summer take a drink on the garden terrace. For more space, ask about the gatehouse apartments or the villa.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.