The borrowed garden
Across the rue de Rivoli, the Tuileries and the Louvre. Below suite level, the view is sold as a category: ask for it before you ask for space.
8.7Le Meurice
Rue de Rivoli, Paris
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A gardenit doesn't own.
Le Meurice's garden belongs to everyone. It is the Tuileries, across the rue de Rivoli: clipped trees, gravel paths, the Louvre at one end and, far off over the treetops, the Eiffel Tower. What the hotel does with it is unusual for a Paris palace. Where the Ritz keeps its view of the Place Vendôme for a handful of suites and the Crillon sells no room by its view of the Concorde, Le Meurice sells its view by name, well below suite level. A room of 32 square metres with a Juliet balcony and the Eiffel Tower in sight is one of the entry categories; on the sixth floor, a room of 42 has three Juliet balconies over the park. For anyone who came for Paris, either is the room to ask about first.
Inside, it is a classical palace that likes a joke. The renovated bedrooms are calm, in soft colours and fine fabrics; the mischief is downstairs. Le Dalí, the all-day restaurant, borrows its name and its humour from surrealism. Next door, Bar 228 has live jazz every night. And the pastry chef has made his name with fruit that is not fruit: a peach or a lemon sculpted from pastry, so exact that the first cut is a small surprise.
The grand room is easier to see than people think. Breakfast can be taken in the two-star dining room, a gilded hall inspired by the Salon de la Paix at Versailles, so a guest can sit under its chandeliers without booking dinner, which it serves only on weekdays and not at all in August. The pastries are sold at a shop round the corner on the rue de Castiglione, from noon until they run out, or ordered ahead.
The limits are clear. There is no pool: the spa has four treatment rooms, hammams, a sauna and a gym. The rue de Rivoli outside is crowded, and the Concorde end of it is where Paris goes to demonstrate. The standard rooms look onto a courtyard or a street, and cost a palace's money all the same. Guests speak most warmly of the staff and the concierge, and least warmly of the bill.
A few square metres buy the view. Open the window of a park-side room and the Tuileries begin across the street, gravel paths and clipped trees running down to the Louvre. For a couple on a first visit, or anyone who means to start every morning in that garden, it is an easy trade.
32 m²
A Juliet balcony and the Eiffel Tower, no suite required.
After dark
Wood panelling, leather armchairs and live jazz every night: the house after dark.
Breakfast under gilt
The gilded dining room serves breakfast too: the easiest way to sit in it.
Le Dalí
Downstairs, the classical palace allows itself a joke. Le Dalí serves all day, and pours the afternoon tea.
At a glance
Where
228 rue de Rivoli, facing the Tuileries
- Rooms
- 160: 121 rooms and 39 suites. Rooms from 30 m² (Classic, courtyard or street). View rooms: Superior Room, Eiffel View with Balcony (32 m²); Executive Room, Eiffel View (45 m²); Executive Room, Eiffel View with Balcony (42 m², sixth floor, three Juliet balconies over the Tuileries). Suites up to the Belle Étoile penthouse with its 300 m² terrace
- Eating and drinking
- Restaurant Le Meurice Alain Ducasse (two Michelin stars; dinner Monday to Friday, closed in August; breakfast is served here), Le Dalí (all day, every day; afternoon tea), Bar 228 (live jazz nightly)
- Pastry
- Cédric Grolet's pâtisserie at 6 rue de Castiglione, Wednesday to Sunday from noon until sold out; click and collect
- Spa
- La Maison Valmont: four treatment rooms, hammams, sauna, gym; no pool
- Recognition
- Palace distinction; three Michelin Keys
Room categories and availability are confirmed with your quote.
Why this one
The view without a suite.
A Juliet balcony with the Eiffel Tower in sight from a 32 m² room, three Juliet balconies over the Tuileries from a 42 m² one: at the Ritz and the Crillon, views like these come with suites.
A palace with a sense of humour.
Calm classical bedrooms, and downstairs a restaurant named for a surrealist, live jazz and pastry disguised as fruit.
The grand room at breakfast.
The two-star gilded dining room also serves breakfast, so you can sit in it without booking a dinner; ask where breakfast is served on your dates.
The Edit Notes
What a booking site will not tell you.
The view is in the name.
The Classic (30 m²), Superior (35 m²) and Deluxe (40 m²) rooms look onto a courtyard or a street, and so does the plain Executive (45 m²). The view is sold as a category: the Superior Room, Eiffel View with Balcony (32 m²) has a Juliet balcony with the tower in sight; the Executive Room, Eiffel View (45 m²) frames the Tuileries and the tower; the Executive Room, Eiffel View with Balcony (42 m²) is on the sixth floor, with three Juliet balconies over the park. If the category does not name a view, the room has none.
Ask which rooms are new.
Since 2019 the rooms have been redone in phases by the designer Charles Jouffre with Lally & Berger, in soft colours and fine fabrics; early in 2025 about sixty were still to go, and the hotel gives no current count. When you book, ask whether yours is one of the new ones.
Order the pastries before you queue.
The pastry shop at 6 rue de Castiglione opens Wednesday to Sunday from noon and closes when the last piece is sold; there is nowhere to sit. Order ahead online and collect, or take the pastries at afternoon tea in Le Dalí instead.
Plan around the street.
The rue de Rivoli is busy, and the Concorde end is a regular stage for demonstrations. On those days, allow extra time for cars and transfers. Two small facts help: parking is free for guests, and dogs under seven kilos are welcome, though not in the bar, the restaurant or the spa.
The price question
Le Meurice is priced like the palace it is, and guests feel it. What earns the price is the view: a room over the Tuileries or towards the Eiffel Tower, which here does not require a suite. A guest who books that side, takes breakfast in the gilded room and walks in the park every morning gets the best of the house. A guest in a courtyard room who needs a pool will wonder what they paid for.
What the park buys
- A window on the park or the tower, below suite level.
- Breakfast in a two-star gilded dining room.
- Pastry that has made a name of its own, and live jazz at night.
- The Louvre and the park on the doorstep.
What it does not have
- A swimming pool.
- Space with the view: the smallest view room is 32 m².
- A quiet street outside.
- Easy value: guests are coolest about the bill.
Who it suits
Couples on a first visit to Paris, walkers and museum-goers who will use the Tuileries and the Louvre every day, and anyone who travels for pastry.
Who should spend elsewhere
Hôtel de Crillon
A short walk away on the Concorde, with an indoor pool: for a swim over a view.
Cheval Blanc Paris
By the Pont Neuf, with a 30-metre pool and rooms from 45 m²: for a swim and a contemporary room.
The Extra Edit
Confirmed with your quote
YOUR EXTRA
Something extra, from us.
Ask for a stay and a person takes it from there. Any hotel privileges that apply, and a personal Extra arranged by us, are confirmed with your bookable quote.
- SipDrinks
- SavourCulinary
- DiscoverExperience
Tell us which Extra appeals in your request. Nothing is charged when you ask, and no upgrade is promised.
How the grade is made
The Edit score is the editor's grade for the level of the hotel, out of ten. It weighs what the outside judges say (Michelin Keys, Forbes Travel Guide, World's 50 Best Hotels, Atout France palace status, La Liste), what changed in the last two years and what guests write now; where these and the editor's own judgement disagree, the editor decides. A spa with a pool worth booking for adds up to two tenths.
Why book through The Edit
Our personal Extra
A drink, a meal or an experience: chosen by you, arranged by us.
Handled personally
A person confirms your request within 24 hours.