Hotel de Crillon

Where Louis XVI Was Held, Before It Was a Hotel at All

Hôtel de Crillon occupies one of two matching stone palaces that Louis XV commissioned architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel to build on Place de la Concorde in 1758. The Crillon family bought it in 1788, only for the Revolution to confiscate it soon after, and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were briefly held inside before their deaths. The building hosted the signing of early French-American treaties in 1778, decades before it became a hotel in 1909. Few addresses in Paris, or anywhere, carry this particular weight of documented history behind an unchanged facade.

Why It Works

We chose this hotel because its Palace distinction, a status held by only a handful of properties in France, is backed by substance rather than branding. A renovation led by designer Aline Asmar d'Amman restored Gabriel's original stonework and ceilings room by room, while Karl Lagerfeld was brought in separately to design Les Grands Appartements, the hotel's most theatrical suites. Three restaurants and a spa keep the hotel self-sufficient for a stay that never has to leave Place de la Concorde, and 124 rooms and suites give it a scale the smaller hôtels particuliers in this city can't match.

Why This Location

The hotel sits directly on Place de la Concorde, at the foot of the Champs-Élysées, facing the Hôtel de la Marine across Rue Royale in a nearly identical building from the same architect. The Tuileries garden and the Orangerie are a short walk along the river side of the square, and the fashion houses of Rue Saint-Honoré and Rue Royale sit immediately behind the hotel. It is a location built for guests who want to walk out the door directly onto one of the city's defining public spaces rather than a quieter side street.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxe

• Vibe: royal history, Palace distinction, formal grandeur

• Rooms: 124, split between 78 rooms and 46 suites

• Best For: history-minded travellers, special-occasion stays, landmark seekers

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: Les Grands Appartements, the suites Karl Lagerfeld designed inside Gabriel's 1758 shell

• Dining: three restaurants and a bar, inside rooms that trace back to the original 18th-century interiors

• Amenities: spa, gym, health club, outdoor terrace

• Attractions: Place de la Concorde and the Tuileries (steps away), Rue Saint-Honoré and Rue Royale shopping

Karl Lagerfeld's Grand Apartments

The 124 rooms and suites split between 78 standard categories and 46 suites, the grandest of which, Les Grands Appartements, carry interiors Karl Lagerfeld designed as a standalone commission inside the Gabriel-era building. Aline Asmar d'Amman's renovation handled the rest of the hotel, working to expose and restore original stonework and ceilings that had been covered over in earlier decades. The contrast between her restrained, material-led rooms and Lagerfeld's more theatrical suites gives the hotel two distinct registers under one roof, rather than a single house style repeated floor after floor.

Three Restaurants and a Bar Beneath Gabriel's Ceilings

The hotel runs three restaurants and a bar, set inside rooms that still carry the proportions and detailing of Gabriel's original 1758 design, restored rather than reconstructed during the 2010s renovation. An outdoor terrace extends the dining options into the hotel's own garden spaces, a rarity for an address directly on Place de la Concorde. The spread of three distinct dining rooms means the hotel can sustain a stay built entirely around eating on-site, without repeating the same room twice.

What to Know Before You Book

This is a large hotel by Paris palace standards, 124 keys, so travellers after the intimacy of an eleven-room hôtel particulier should look at a smaller address instead. Les Grands Appartements sit at the top of the house's pricing and are worth booking specifically if Lagerfeld's design work is the draw, since the standard rooms follow Asmar d'Amman's more restrained register. The Place de la Concorde location means a genuinely central, well-connected stay, with the trade-off of a busier square immediately outside than the side-street hotels nearby.