The best hotels in Paris for 2023 | cute hotels paris
ForalongtimeIkeptasecretguiltily.NotaguiltysecretbutasecretIfeltguiltyaboutkeeping.ThesecretwastheHôtelHenriIV[1],overlookingtheraked-gravelparadisethatisthePlaceDauphineontheIledelaCité.Itwascheapandshabbybutinexpressiblyglamorous–aremnantofanelegantlycarewornParis[2]thathas,inthecourseofmyownlifetime,beeneitherpolishedbeyondrecognitionordissolvedinafast-flowing,irresistiblecurrentofmoney.TheHenriIVwassoldsomeyearsago.MaybeIshouldn’tfeelguiltyabouthavingkeptitasecret.Simplyspreadingthewor...
For a long time I kept a secret guiltily. Not a guilty secret but a secret I felt guilty about keeping. The secret was the Hôtel Henri IV[1], overlooking the raked-gravel paradise that is the Place Dauphine on the Ile de la Cité. It was cheap and shabby but inexpressibly glamorous – a remnant of an elegantly careworn Paris[2] that has, in the course of my own lifetime, been either polished beyond recognition or dissolved in a fast-flowing, irresistible current of money. The Henri IV was sold some years ago. Maybe I shouldn’t feel guilty about having kept it a secret. Simply spreading the word wouldn’t have been enough to save it. And in truth it was probably never quite as squishily ripe with promise as I remember it to have been. Yet isn’t that the point about hotels in Paris? The good ones are more than the sum of their parts, even when the parts are heavenly. The really curious thing is that, however many Henri IVs the city loses, it always seems, year after year, to gain even ...