Monsieur George

There are two Georges just off the Champs-Élysées. One has a palace named after him: George V, the British king. The other has a townhouse, a dark green velvet sofa and a bar where the mirrors seem to multiply the cocktails. Monsieur George takes his name from the American president whose avenue-sized fame is rather less conspicuous in Paris. On rue Washington, the difference is immediate. Nobody is trying to make you feel as though you have arrived at court. They are trying to make you feel as though you have been invited somewhere.

It is a very elaborately imagined invitation. Anouska Hempel, the designer behind London's Blakes, has dressed the hotel in glossy black lacquer, velvet, fringed lamps and shades of green so deep that daylight seems almost an intrusion. The lobby has the hush of a private club, though its exotic touches suggest that the fictional owner has travelled considerably farther than London. Opened in 2020, the hotel has forty-six rooms and suites, but nowhere near forty-six versions of the same bedroom. Hempel changes her mind as she climbs the stairs, and the guest benefits from knowing this before booking.

A Classic has a black-and-white chequerboard floor, plenty of mirrors and just sixteen to twenty square metres. It can be delicious for a night, less appealing for two people with large suitcases. An Executive is twenty square metres too, with velvet curtains and either street or courtyard views. For a little more elbow room, the twenty-six-square-metre Deluxe is the sensible choice, and some have balconies or bow windows. Check the bathroom as well: showers and baths differ between rooms. At these prices, it is worth having a conversation rather than simply choosing the word that sounds grandest.

Then, towards the roof, the hotel does something rather wonderful. The greens and blacks give way to ivory walls, pale wood and muslin, with Paris spreading beyond the windows. An Executive with Eiffel Tower view is still only twenty square metres, but has a balcony from which to admire the landmark. The thirty-five-square-metre suites offer more space and rooftop views; the Franklin Suite makes a little occasion of breakfast above the city. The forty-five-square-metre Garden Suite takes the opposite approach: a leafy duplex with its own private outdoor space, sheltered from the streets. Two people can spend quite different weekends here and both believe they have seen the real Monsieur George.

Downstairs, Galanga gives the hotel a social life that is more than an excuse to stay in. The green-and-gold dining room opens towards a planted courtyard, and the Michelin-starred kitchen is now led by Florian Gravelle, who arrived in 2025. His cooking draws on the Mediterranean and farther afield, rather than pretending that the hotel's English-club looks require an English menu. There is a more relaxed lunch, too. The little wine cellar is perhaps the nicest indulgence: through a door behind the kitchen and down a staircase, a table for six sits among the bottles. It would be an enjoyable way to discover just how good your new host's taste is.

If you would rather recover from dinner, the vaulted cellars hold a small spa, now working with EÏA, with a sauna, hammam and treatments. There is a modest gym but no swimming pool, no sprawling garden and no grand lobby in which to lose an afternoon. The other limitation is the address. The Champs-Élysées is convenient for shopping, the Arc de Triomphe and an easy métro connection; it is not the Paris of small neighbourhood markets and quiet bookshops. And Hempel's interiors are emphatically a matter of taste. Anyone who needs bright, unfussy rooms may find the downstairs atmosphere too much like a private club that has forgotten to turn on the lights.

Still, there is pleasure in the way this hotel plays with expectations. You can spend the evening in a room as dark as a jewellery box, then wake beneath the roofs of Paris in near-white daylight. The palace nearby has grandeur to spare. Monsieur George has personality, and, if you choose your room carefully, somewhere genuinely appealing to sleep.