There’s no reception at 42 Avenue Gabriel, but there is a voluptuously upholstered Louis XV salon ready to welcome guests. La Réserve Paris Hotel and Spa is both an outstanding establishment and a state of mind: that of a diminutive private mansion that is now a Palace, and a place where you can feel both right at home and truly away from it all.
The references to 19th century bourgeois interiors come thanks to Jacques Garcia, who found further inspiration in the era’s ornaments. The walls of the 14 rooms and 26 suites - each a real Parisian apartment – are bedecked in silk, while wing chairs snuggle into velvet and the parquet is crated from oak. It is an opulence worthy of the Second Empire, a time when the Duke of Morny, a dandy and keen art collector, held court at the Palace.
A fine host and established aesthete, Michel Reybier is also the owner of La Réserve Paris. He has filled the Palace’s rooms with priceless ornaments and antiques, weaving unexpected complicity between the Belle Époque atmosphere and echoes of contemporary style, like the tablet to adjust the heating and lighting, or the iPad to summon the butler.
Chic and relaxed, La Pagode de Cos whisks epicurean guests away on a culinary journey along the Spice Road to India, Japan, and Vietnam. It is a nod and a tribute to the founder of the Clos d’Estournel, the house’s second listed vintage, whose efforts to export wine as far as India earned him the nickname the “Maharajah of Saint-Estephe”.
A gourmet snack, a bespoke cocktail, or a fine vintage from the bar’s selection can all be enjoyed in the library. Comfortably settled in and surrounded by innumerable antique books, the library is a place where guests can enjoy the pleasant sensation of a home away from home.
An alternative address for an alternative ambience. A stone’s throw from the Eiffel Tower, in the Place du Trocadéro, the traditional facade of La Réserve Apartments Paris belies the trendy, understated interiors by Rémi Tessier.
Glass, slate, and metal meet ebony, rosewood, and sycamore in these 10 apartments of varying sizes (from 150m² to 300m²) that serve as pieds à terre. In the apartments’ spacious rooms, light is given its full expression and sober colours are set off by a few gems of contemporary design from Knoll, Andrée Putman, and Maxalto.
A French, or perhaps Parisian, garden is an art form that can find expression when space is of a premium. In a nod to the Sun King’s Orangerie, the green spaces (a patio and two terraces) can be enjoyed when the sun graces us with its presence! In fine weather, breakfast can be enjoyed with leafy views.