Was your snooze worth the $1,001 dollars? That is the big one for the first guests staying at the Peninsula, Paris, renovated and reopened after ten long years of speculation on the $1 billion spent. It is historic, the Paris Peace Accord ending the Vietnam Wars having been signed here at this 1908 grand hotel, which was briefly the seat of the Unesco. The tariff was €750 on the ‘Debut’ offer, to be exact, for a Superior room with separate dressing room, free Wi-Fi and long-distance VOIP calls, and custom in-room tablets speaking 11 languages. You might even find nail varnish dryers or oscillating Japanese toilets in your room. If you can be more liberal with the purse strings, five of the suites in this palace hotel get their own rooftop garden — more of a romantic evening in Paris we cannot imagine, though they aren’t available to reserve yet. Of course, you will want Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris’, written here, to play over dinner al fresco. Or you could amble across the courtyard to the rooftop restaurant L’Oiseau Blanc. Eiffel-tower views? But certainement!
While the French themselves have been chary about the food and service on review engines, all nations agree on the splendour of the public spaces where 20,000 pieces of gold leaf have been applied. The renovations have dug deep, literally, to make room for an impressive spa and mosaic-walled swimming pool underground as well as a dedicated parking space and three levels of staff quarters. The hotel cars are restored vintage models, from Mini Clubmans to a Rolls Royce Phantom III with USB ports and VOIP phone in its vintage interiors. A free chauffeur service after 7.30pm offers a BMW 750i.
For a reservation of a suite or a drink on the rooftop, go to peninsula.com.