Inside the best new hotels in Paris

It’s a good time to be an electrician, in the City of Lights. Last year, the French capital welcomed no fewer than five new museums and now just as many sparkling new hotels are opening.

Whether your budget allows for carte blanche or your counting every euro, here are the best new hotels in Paris.

Spanish quarters

Scoff all you want at the idea of staying in a Spanish hotel in the heart of Paris, but once you experience the newly imagined five-star Hotel Villa Marquis (from $350), you’ll see why it’s one of the city’s best assets in the accommodations department.

For starters, it has a Rafael Nadal-approved fitness center. Seriously, the tennis star works out there.

The location is also hard to beat: It’s on the same historic street where Victor Hugo sourced the inspiration to write “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.”

And if you’re lucky enough to get a south-facing room on the eighth floor, you can enjoy your afternoon tea with a side of Eiffel Tower.

In a past life, the 63-room property was a private mansion. But last year, Melia Hotels completely renovated the existing hotel and reopened it with designs by architects Álvaro Sans and daughter Adriana. Meanwhile the hotel’s parent, Melia, opened a smaller, but just as posh, 39-room sister hotel dubbed, Hotel Maison Colbert. Sauve.

Writ large

Hôtel Madame Rêve (from $400) has only been open a year now. Still, it’s already been deemed the city’s best-kept secret. Housed in the former Louvre post office, and with a rather unassuming corner entrance, this 82-suite hotel is easy to miss.

But inside, it’s just as easy to see why tourists and locals alike are raving about this five-star retreat just a five-minute walk from the Louvre. The interior is ’70s-era swanky — think lots of orange and brown hues — and the 10,000-square-foot rooftop terrace boasts some of the best panoramic views of Paris.

Pro tip: Get a drink downstairs in the Madame Rêve Café.

Classique digs

If you don’t mind not staying downtown, check into the affordable, and highly popular, Hotel Moderniste, housed in a 1930s-era building in the 15th arrondissement.

The aptly named Hotel Moderniste (from $160) opened last November and is already ranked 9th out of 1,887 hotels in Paris on TripAdvisor. The 40 rooms range from small — think one side of the bed against the wall — to large quads of 247 square feet. Guests tend to gather, however, in the hotel’s cozy winter garden where the coffee and madeleines are always complementary.

When you want to venture into the city, simply walk five minutes to the Convention metro stop where it’s a 30-minute ride to the Eiffel Tower.

Simply splendid

Maison Mère (from $180) translates to “simple house,” and while this new boutique hotel in the Montmartre district is so homey it feels more like a B&B, they pay extreme attention to detail. Thoughtful touches include a handwritten personal note welcoming you to the property, real books in the room (none of this blank page, just-for-décor nonsense) and cookies asking you to rate the property on TripAdvisor.

The tasty treat is working.

Currently, this 51-room, dog-friendly hotel has a perfect five-star average rating from 256 reviews. While all the rooms are cozy — you may find yourself emptying out the mini-bar only so you have more storage space — some have balconies. But the best part about staying here is the warm staff who debunk the stereotype that Parisians are rude.

A Roman in Gaul

Design-wise, almost every aspect of the très chic five-star Bulgari Hotel Paris pays homage to the brand’s Italian roots. Between its mosaics and marble bathrooms, it seems like it would be more at home in Rome than in the heart of Paris’s golden triangle.

Opened last December, the hotel boasts 76 rooms (from $1,750) and suites including a 3,000-square-foot penthouse occupying the top two floors. The rooftop retreat also has a private garden complete with fruit trees and sweeping views of the city’s most iconic landmarks.

Guests staying in regular suites (which are still spacious and luxurious) all have access to the property’s outdoor swimming pool and 4,000-square-foot subterranean spa. Like Hôtel Madame Rêve, the building used to be a post office.

Histoire d’amour

It’s not a railroad reference — “chouchou” is a term of endearment in French. And there’s lots to love about this new 63-room hotel in the 9th arrondissement.

For starters, Chouchou (from $290) has a food market featuring the city’s best charcuterie boards — choose from surf or turf.

Then there are the three private baths in the basement where guests can experience sound healing and “aquatic sophrology.” In terms of rooms with a view, it’s hard to top the Suite L’Arrache-Coeur overlooking the Palais Garnier. While the four-star hotel didn’t have a flawless launch (it tried to open in the fall of 2020), it’s now quite popular with locals who come for the live shows in the hotel’s Bar Guinguette.