La Réserve Paris

La Réserve Paris occupies an 1854 Haussmann mansion on Avenue Gabriel, set back behind a screen of trees between the Champs-Élysées and the gardens of the Élysée. The house belonged to the family of the Duc de Morny, half-brother of Napoleon III, and later to Pierre Cardin's company, before Michel Reybier turned it into a hotel with interiors by Jacques Garcia. It feels like a private Belle Époque apartment: silk walls, velvet drapes, marble fireplaces and Carrara marble bathrooms, more suites than rooms, butler service for every guest and views across the Grand Palais to the Eiffel Tower. The library, the smoking lounge, the fitness studio and the 16-metre indoor pool, a rarity in Paris, are reserved for guests; the pool sits within the Nescens spa. Jérôme Banctel cooks at Le Gabriel, where concentrated sauces made without butter or cream and a cosmopolitan range of flavours hold a three-MICHELIN-star rating; the restaurant opens Monday to Friday. La Pagode de Cos is the second, less formal table, and the Duc de Morny library bar suits a quiet drink. There are 40 rooms and suites, and the hotel holds three MICHELIN Keys.