Mandarin Oriental Paris — hotel review

Nestled in the heart of Paris' fashion centre, the Mandarin Oriental, Paris has a decadent cake shop, internal leafy garden and a sumptuous subterranean spa.

Where is it:

Think Bond Street plus Sloane Street and square it, and you’ve got the gist of the Rue St Honore – it’s Fashion Central Paris, only with chocolate and scent shops thrown in. And bang in the middle of the succession of designer shops, you’ve got the Mandarin Oriental, in a 1930’s building tucked away off the street and discreetly signalled outside with its signature fan symbol. Right opposite, there’s Giorgio Armani and Marc Jacobs; next door, there’s Chloe; look the other way and it’s Alexander McQueen and Chanel (under elegant wraps). Turn down a side street and you’re across the road from the Tuileries, the lovely central park of Paris (where once guillotines sliced through aristocratic vertebrae).

Do I need to say more?

Style:

As the name suggests, there’s a discernible oriental aesthetic, though in a very different fashion from the London branch of the hotel. You walk from the street into the reception area and the first thing you see, behind a big hanging circle sculpture, is the hotel’s prize selling point: an internal leafy garden around which most of the rooms are structured. That green space opens up the hotel from the inside and gives the place an internal calm. The décor in the lobby evokes a Japanese lacquer box – those smooth rounded edges and calming grey tones mixed with rich plums and reds and black. If you like your orientalism contemporary, this hits the spot. Even the flower arrangements – huge black geometric rectangles surmounted with enormous pink hydrangeas and purple lilies – are Japanese in feel. It’s opulent, but not in the classical style of most of the grand hotels roundabout.

And – very oriental – the decorative touches are often symbolic. The corridors are a warm grey (if that’s not a contradiction) but the carpet is punctuated with pink butterflies inside a circle – it was lost on me, but it symbolises integrity. On the walls there are drawings of elegant Parisiennes, in dusty plums. The rods of Swarovski crystal that hang down outside the restaurant symbolise falling rainwater. And on the wall as you make for the restaurant, there’s a huge fan, the hotel chain’s symbol, decorated by one of the great Paris fashion houses.

Facilities:

The big ground floor lobby functions as a lounge where you can curl up on the grey velvet geometric sofas, with their opulent plum and gold cushions, or read from a selection of English language books from the walnut bookcase (don’t you find that people make tragically little use of hotel books?). There are discreet alcoves where you can eat and drink. The main restaurant and the bar open out onto the garden, where sparrows flutter on the tables next to you. There is a spacious subterranean spa where you can get an excellent Mandarin Oriental massage – the treatments, formulated for the hotel, use either the chain’s own, very good, aromatherapeutic products, or Guerlain. The pool is 14 metres long, where little shadow butterflies dance on flowers on either side, and water spills down a grey mosaic wall at the end. The fitness centre operates 24 hours a day; not that I troubled it much.

Food and drink:

There are three restaurants and a cake shop, under the aegis of the chef, Thierry Marx. Breakfast happens at the Restaurant Camellia, with a good buffet selection, including excellent Viennoiserie and Parisian flan, and the usual fruits, cured meats, cheeses and conserves, as well as cooked and Japanese breakfasts. The same restaurant offers elegant dishes at lunch and dinner – the nicest seats are outside – with a strong patisserie component in the desserts. In fact, if you want to cut to the chase and just focus on that (and I’d be all in sympathy) the restaurant functions as a cake shop- cafe where you can stick to refined pastries, like a triangular gateau St Honore or a rich chocolate mouse cake, with courgette cream. Yes, courgette, and it works. The restaurant Sur Measure is Michelin starred, with a glacial all-white décor enlivened by white hanging drapery in plaster.

The bar is one of the few in Paris where you can have a cocktail outside, in the internal garden.

Which room:

There are 138 room and suites, which look out either onto the internal garden or onto the Rue St Honore; the rooftop suites have a splendid view towards the Opera. The smallest are 37 sq metres, with modest wardrobe space. The décor is a calming grey, with taupe silk cushions and plum taffeta but over the beds, there’s a depiction in velvet of Man Ray’s The Kiss – though in some bigger suites, which are on two levels, there’s a huge picture in red of a Chinese woman – actress or concubine – with a great fan, in the sitting area. The bathroom in the smaller rooms is separated into bath-shower-loo on one side, and sinks on the other. The toiletries are Diptyque – what could be nicer?

Be careful though, not to go mad at the mini bar. A tub of Pringles is 10 euro; so is Kit Kat and M&Ms – and this hotel is on a street where you can get some of Paris’s finest chocolates for the same sum.

Extracurricular:

Look, you cannot get more central than this. Up the road is the Louvre, and you’re round the corner from Concorde, the great public space of Paris, perhaps the grandest in Europe. You can walk to half the sites of interest in Paris from here if you’re sufficiently energetic. But assuming you know the obvious places, let me recommend my new prize find, the Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature, in the Marais, not far from the Picasso Museum, which has the most fabulous and intriguing exhibits about man’s relationship with animals in terms of the hunt, from unicorns to wild boar. Or if it’s fashion that’s your thing, there’s an exhibition, Dreams of the Orient, at the Yves St Laurent museum on the Rue Marceau, in the 16th, from the beginning of October until January, with over 50 pieces of YSL’s finest on an Oriental theme. Which would go quite well with this hotel, no?

Tariffs:

The best rates are to be found online for the hotel’s special offers: for instance if you book in advance the best rate is 956 euro for a room, with a minimum two night stay. Otherwise, Bed and Breakfast is 1,189 euro for a DeLuxe room, or 1,075 euro for a Superior Room without breakfast; a large Mandarin room is 1,538 euro. There are some special rates for guests staying three nights. A Panoramic Suite with its own terrace is 4,000 euro.