In France, palace is not a compliment but a title. Atout France, the national tourism agency, grants it to a small number of hotels that go beyond the highest grade, for five years at a time, and judges what a guidebook cannot measure: the service that remembers, the rooms that hold their own against the city outside, the kitchens and gardens that turn a stay into an occasion.
Most of the palaces are in Paris, on the great streets and squares. The rest are spread across the country: in the snow at Courchevel, on the rocks of Cap-Ferrat and Cap d'Antibes, above the bay of Saint-Tropez, and among the vines of Champagne and Bordeaux.
Paris
13 hotels
Cheval Blanc Paris
Paris
Perfection, lived in.
Le Bristol
Paris
The pleasure of being expected.
La Réserve Paris
Paris
Shared with very few.
Hôtel de Crillon
Paris
The Crillon wears it lightly.
Four Seasons Hotel George V
Paris
A palace in full flower.
Bvlgari Hotel Paris
Paris
Italy, packed for travel.
The Peninsula Paris
Paris
Paris, on Hong Kong time.
Plaza Athénée
Paris
Paris drops in.
Le Royal Monceau – Raffles Paris
Paris
The room is the programme.
Shangri-La Paris
Paris
The view by name.
Fouquet's Paris
Paris
Backstage on the Champs-Élysées.
Mandarin Oriental Lutetia
Paris
The Left Bank's front room.
Le Meurice
Paris
A garden it doesn't own.
The Alps
7 hotels
Cheval Blanc Courchevel
Courchevel 1850
Skis off at the door, art in every corridor.
Airelles Courchevel
Courchevel 1850
Turrets in the Jardin Alpin.
Le K2 Palace
Courchevel 1850
A hamlet on the Cospillot.
L'Apogée Courchevel
Courchevel 1850
Forty metres to the ski room.
Fouquet's Courchevel
Courchevel 1850
Paris, at 1850.
Four Seasons Resort Megève
Megève
A family's mountain, a borrowed label.
Hôtel Royal, Évian-les-Bains
Évian-les-Bains
A grand hotel for a spring.
Where they are.
Every hotel in this collection, on one map of France.
