Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris has 350 works of art, a Nobu restaurant, and a 23-metre pool. But it’s the bathroom that stays with you.
There’s a moment, somewhere between your second soak and the realisation that every surface around you is mirrored and stainless steel, that you understand what Philippe Starck was going for. Not elegance, exactly. Not restraint. Something louder and more pleasurable than that. Standing in the bathroom of a room at Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris, you are, unmistakably, bathing inside a disco ball. It’s ridiculous. It’s inspired. And it tells you more about this hotel than any press release could.
Le Royal Monceau opened in 1928 and has counted General Eisenhower, Walt Disney, and Madonna among its guests. Ray Charles liked it so much he moved in for a while. There’s now a suite named after him. Raffles took over management in 2007, handed the interiors to Starck, and reopened in 2010 with something that had no real precedent in Paris: a luxury hotel that looked like it was having fun.
Red lanterns, acoustic guitars, and a lobby that leads somewhere
The 8th arrondissement is not a neighbourhood that tends toward the theatrical. Quiet limestone avenues, offices, apartment buildings. Which makes the red glass lanterns and Art Deco awning at the entrance feel like a wink from across the street. Inside, the cavernous lobby opens onto something more interesting than the usual hotel architecture of sofa-and-chandelier: a wood-panelled concierge, an art-focused bookshop, a smoking lounge, a 99-seat cinema. The hotel’s contemporary art gallery, Art District, has its own entrance next door and its own distinct personality.
What I hadn’t expected was how alive the ground floor feels. A baby shower unfolding over brunch at one table; someone alone with a newspaper and an excellent hot chocolate at another. Le Bar Long, the hotel’s all-day café, draws actual locals, which is the surest sign that a hotel restaurant has got something right.
Murano glass, mid-century leather, and a writing desk with Paris on it
The 149 rooms range from the “artist rooms” to the presidential suites, which are closer in spirit to a Parisian apartment than a hotel bedroom. Starck’s hand is everywhere: Murano glass chandeliers above mid-century modern leather sofas, Philippe Hurel writing desks with illustrated maps of Paris inlaid on their surfaces, and acoustic guitars standing upright in the corners of rooms, actually available to play. It’s either charming or slightly absurd depending on your disposition. I came down firmly on the side of charming.
And then the bathroom. I have stayed in beautiful hotel bathrooms. I have stayed in bathrooms with marble the colour of old honey and tubs deep enough to disappear into. None of them prepared me for the experience of being surrounded, on all sides, by mirrors and stainless steel. The effect is disorienting and then, rapidly, completely delightful.
The only Nobu in France, and an Italian that earns its Michelin star
There are three restaurants at Le Royal Monceau, and the ambition of the food programme is not something the hotel wears quietly. Matsuhisa Paris is the only French outpost of chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s Peruvian-Japanese restaurant group, an appointment that still feels like a coup over a decade later. Il Carpaccio, the hotel’s Michelin-starred Italian, runs in partnership with Da Vittorio, the three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Brusaporto. The signature paccheri with three types of tomato and Parmesan is on the menu at Il Carpaccio. Order it. Don’t overthink it.
In the mornings, the Matsuhisa space transforms into La Cuisine, which serves a Parisian buffet breakfast that I would recommend over room service toast without hesitation. Homemade babka, fresh mangoes, bagels and lox, waffles with vanilla bean, eggs and hot dishes made to order. It is the kind of breakfast that makes you want to stay in Paris slightly longer than you had planned.
A 23-metre pool and the spa that surrounds it
The Clarins & myBlend spa covers 1,500 square metres, which sounds like an abstraction until you’re standing at one end of the 23-metre indoor pool, one of the longest hotel pools in Paris, lit with a white light that makes the water look almost silver. The spa specialises in bespoke facials, the kind where they look at your skin properly before deciding what to do with it, rather than working through a laminated menu of options. Massages, manicures, waxing, and make-up complete the offering, and there’s a fitness centre, Thai boxing studio, and dedicated yoga and Pilates spaces adjacent to the spa. The pool admits children until 5pm, after which it reverts to the kind of quiet that hotel pools should have.
The service that knows when to disappear
The staff at Le Royal Monceau are present without being performative. There is never a moment of searching for someone when you need one, and equally no moment of feeling watched over. If you want to spend two hours in Le Bar Long without anyone refilling your water glass every eight minutes, the team will allow it. If you need a taxi or an umbrella materialised quickly, they will materialise it. This is a skill that fewer luxury hotels possess than they should.
Families are well considered: cots, extra beds, high chairs, a children’s room service menu and a separate menu for babies, colouring books, 3D models of the hotel to build, cookies, PlayStation consoles. It is either a hotel for a romantic trip to Paris or a practical family base, depending entirely on what you need it to be.
On the environmental side, 100 per cent of recyclable waste is processed in France, organic waste goes to composting, soap is recycled via the nonprofit SapoCycle, and the hotel’s vehicle fleet is entirely hybrid. Guests have free use of a bicycle fleet, which is one of the better ways to approach the Parc Monceau.
Practical information
Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris is at 37 Avenue Hoche, 75008 Paris. The hotel is a ten-minute walk from the Arc de Triomphe and Parc Monceau, and 25 minutes on foot from the Seine. Rates vary by season and room category; book via raffles.com. The nearest metro stations are Charles de Gaulle-Étoile and Ternes on lines 1, 2, and 6.
