The Peninsula Paris

The site was once the Palacio Castilla, where the exiled Queen Isabella II of Spain abdicated on 20 June 1870. After a bidding war against the United States government and the King of Belgium, the hotelier Leonard Tauber acquired the property and built the Hotel Majestic, designed by Armand Sibien; building started in 1906, and the Majestic opened in December 1908. During the First World War it was a field hospital for wounded officers, staffed largely by British aristocrats, and from February to June 1919 it hosted the Supreme Inter-Allied Council and Preliminary Peace Conference. The 1920s brought a different crowd: a famous dinner in 1922 gathered Marcel Proust, Igor Stravinsky and Pablo Picasso, the first unofficial Chess Olympiad took place here in 1924, and George Gershwin wrote “An American in Paris” while staying here in 1928.

In 1936 the building was converted to government offices; under the German occupation it was the seat of the military high command in France, and in 1973 the Paris Peace Accords were signed here. The French government sold the building to Qatari Diar in 2008, and it reopened on 1 August 2014 as The Peninsula Paris, the Peninsula group’s first hotel in Europe, in a joint venture with Katara Hospitality. The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, parent company of Peninsula Hotels, holds a 20% interest in the property. Richard Martinet of Affine architecture & interior design drew up the conversion, with interiors by Henry Leung of CAP Atelier Ltd, and 20 expert stonemasons restored the building by hand. The MICHELIN Guide calls the result pure Haussmann, from the neoclassical ornaments of the ground-floor façade up to the mansard roof.

Inside, Le Lobby sits beneath a Versailles-style glass roof, and the Kléber bar and lounge has a pair of restored ceiling murals. The rooftop restaurant takes its name from L'Oiseau Blanc, the plane in which the aviators Nungesser and Coli tried to make the first North Atlantic crossing in 1927; a life-size replica of it is fixed to the top of the hotel. The MICHELIN Guide awards the hotel two MICHELIN Keys, its mark for an exceptional stay.

The hotel lies in the 16th arrondissement, in the district the MICHELIN Guide lists as Trocadéro, near the Arc de Triomphe. For getting about, it keeps a fleet of customised Peninsula Edition MINI Cooper S Clubmans and BMW 7 Series for airport transfers and shopping trips; guests can also explore the city by electric bike or in the hotel's courtesy car, and its Clefs d'Or concierges plan bespoke itineraries through the capital.

Rooms are finished in what the MICHELIN Guide describes as classic luxury: lacquer in rich greys with sepia and cream notes, elaborate headboards, sleek lighting, marble bathrooms with Japanese toilets and custom bedside tablets. The Deluxe Room, 35–45 sq m for up to two adults, looks over the city or the courtyard; its marble bathroom has a separate walk-in shower and an integrated television. The Premier Room, 45–50 sq m for up to three, adds a separate dressing room, a double vanity and artworks.

The Junior Suite, 50–60 sq m with courtyard or city views, has a seating area, a walk-in dressing room and a separate guest powder room, and takes a third guest on an extra bed on request. Superior Suites, 60–70 sq m on the first to fifth floors, have a separate sitting room and guest toilets; in some, children under eight can sleep on sofa beds with their parents. The Deluxe Suite measures 85 sq m, with a marble bathroom and double vanity. At 100 sq m, the Grand Premier Suite looks over Avenue Kléber from the second to fifth floors; its entrance leads on one side to a living room furnished with a large sofa, two armchairs and a table for two, and on the other to a walk-in dressing room and a bedroom with a king-size bed and a reading corner.

On the top floor, the Rooftop Garden Suite spans 115–135 sq m, with a 115 sq m rooftop terrace and a private garden, and can be extended with an adjoining room for a family stay. The Rooftop Eiffel Suite pairs a private rooftop garden with Eiffel Tower views, while the Katara Suite has a private rooftop garden and a 90 m² balcony. The Historic Suite draws its period details from the grand Parisian apartments of 1908.

The Peninsula Suite fills a Haussmannian volume on the first floor across 318 m². Crystal chandeliers light its living and entertaining spaces, which include a triple Parisian salon with a decorative fireplace, contemporary artworks and a black lacquered grand piano, and a dining room seating up to 12. The master bedroom has two dressing rooms and a signature bathroom, and two adjoining bedrooms can be connected when required to make a three-bedroom suite.

L'Oiseau Blanc, the hotel's French gastronomic restaurant, holds two Michelin stars and sits encased in glass above the rooftops, its terrace facing the Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Cœur. Executive Chef David Bizet's cooking centres on the freshest seasonal produce. Originally from Mortagne-au-Perche in Normandy, he took his vocational diploma in Caen in 1997, spent 18 years at Four Seasons Hotel George V, and won his first Michelin star at L'Orangerie in 2017 and his second at Le Taillevent in January 2020. Le Rooftop “The Golden Hour” serves summery, friendly food for sharing.

On the ground floor, LiLi brings together Cantonese tradition and French creativity under Chefs Tak Lau Yuen and David Bizet, with dim sum, Peking duck and signature dishes. It opens Tuesday to Saturday for lunch from 12:00 to 14:30 and for dinner, with live music, from 19:00 to 23:00; on Saturdays a Cantonese brunch from 12:00 to 14:00 replaces lunch. LiLi also has two private dining rooms.

Le Lobby, open daily from 07:00 to 22:30, serves a classic Parisian breakfast, snacks, a traditional lunch by Executive Chef David Bizet and wine by the glass, and spills onto Terrace Kléber in summer. Its afternoon tea is the work of David Bizet and Pastry Chef Anne Coruble, and its Sunday brunch is served in two sittings, from 12:00 to 14:00 and from 14:30 to 17:00. Le Bar Kléber pours signature cocktails at a heritage counter, while Le Lounge Kléber, a cigar lounge open on special request, offers fine Cognacs, Asian whisky-inspired cocktails and cigar cabinets for regular guests.

The Peninsula Spa, which the hotel describes as the largest hotel spa in Paris, blends French beauty with ancient Asian traditions. It has six individual treatment rooms, two private suites, a 20-metre indoor pool and two vitality pools. Treatments run daily from 09:00 to 21:00 and must be booked in advance; the pool opens from 06:30 to 22:00.

Two fitness rooms, fully renovated in March 2025, have Technogym equipment and are reserved for hotel guests and Peninsula Spa members; they open from 06:30 to 22:00, and around the clock on request. Every Saturday at 09:00, a Vinyasa yoga class with 15 minutes of meditation takes place under the Rotonde's dome in winter or on the rooftop in summer; it is complimentary for hotel guests who book ahead and includes spa access until 13:00. On Tuesdays at 07:00, “Morning Rise”, open to hotel guests and spa members on booking, is a guided run past landmarks between the Eiffel Tower and Pont Alexandre III, followed by a rooftop snack, stretching, hammam, sauna and pool.