France
7 Hotels
France perfected the art of making things look effortless while hiding extraordinary complexity underneath. The hotels on this list are exactly that. A cardinal's palace where grandmothers still teach cooking in the medieval kitchen. A Left Bank mansion where Boris Vian played jazz while the existentialists argued at the bar. A Riviera retreat where Fitzgerald drank too much and wrote something immortal. France rewards the traveler who looks past the surface. These hotels are the surface worth looking past.
🖼Photo coming soon
Paris
Hotel Da Vinci
Vincenzo Peruggia — the man who stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911 — lived in this building for two years with the painting hidden in his room. He carried the most famous painting in the world on the Paris Metro. Nobody noticed.
🌊Photo coming soon
Cap d'Antibes, French Riviera
Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc
Built in 1870 as a retreat for artists and writers. F. Scott Fitzgerald set scenes from Tender is the Night here. The no-credit-cards policy lasted until 2014. Some things resist the modern era.
🏛Photo coming soon
Paris
Hotel de Crillon
Built by Louis XV in 1758 on the Place de la Concorde. Marie Antoinette took piano lessons in this building. Benjamin Franklin signed the treaty recognizing American independence here in 1778.
⚜️Photo coming soon
Avignon, Provence
La Mirande
A cardinal's palace built in 1688. Avignon was the seat of the papacy for 70 years in the 14th century. The cooking school in the basement is taught by local grandmothers. The medieval kitchen still functions.
🍾Photo coming soon
Reims, Champagne
Château Les Crayères
Built in 1904 by the widow who inherited Pommery Champagne at 39 and turned it into an empire. The hotel sits above the Pommery chalk cellars which stretch for miles underground.
🎷Photo coming soon
Paris, Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Hotel d'Aubusson
A 17th-century mansion that became one of the great Left Bank jazz haunts in the 1950s. Boris Vian played here. Juliette Gréco sang. Saint-Germain still smells like that era if you try hard enough.
🐴Photo coming soon
Strasbourg, Alsace
Les Haras
A national stud farm founded by Napoleon in 1806, now a hotel. The stables still stand. The history of French horsemanship, military conquest, and Alsatian architecture is in every stone.