Le Pavillon de la Reine

The only hotel on the splendid Place des Vosges, the historic Pavillon de la Reine has been completely and elegantly renovated by Didier Benderli, a former associate of Paris star decorator Jacques Garcia and more recently designer of the Petrossian restaurant in Monaco and the new restaurant of chef David Bouley in New York. The renovation coincides with the arrival of a new young manager, Jérôme Chevalier, and the opening of a superb Carita spa.

The charm starts to operate right away, from the garden entrance and the facade covered in Virginia creeper to the cozy fireplace and the library salon. Everything is discreetly luxurious—walls covered in reworked canvas, crushed velvets alternating in soft and intense colors, big panels covered in white-gold leaf. The furniture is all custom-designed in aged oak. All the rooms are individually decorated: some evoke the hotel’s illustrious past—Anne of Austria once stayed in this Queen’s pavilion—with exposed beams, antique chests, canopy beds; others play the contemporary card with tall quilted headboards and graphic solid-color bedspreads.

The Carita spa, also accessible to clients not staying at the hotel, is an instant invitation to well-being. An immense wall of water leads to the fitness center, its glass walls etched with a bamboo pattern. The floor of the Jacuzzi area is covered in pebbles, while the whirlpool bath is done in Portuguese stone. The hammam steam-room has basins of polished marble and a translucent glass ceiling, and the treatment cabines are done in “chromotherapy” colors. A whole battery of Carita treatments is available, including Caresse Volcanique (hot stone massage), Peau de Satin (exfoliating and draining treatment), Nutrition au Lait de Riz (rice milk treatment for dry skin) and anti-jet-lag massage for guests who’ve just rolled in from the airport.

28 pl des Vosges, 3rd, 01.40.29.19.19.  Standard double €330.  website

Originally published in the February 2010 issue of France Today

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