Ritz
15, place Vendôme, 1st arrondissement
Phone: (33) (0) 1 43 16 30 30
Fax: (33) (0) 1 43 16 31 78
Open year-round. 42 suites from €1,010-6,000; 133 rooms €470-700. Rooms for disabled. Restaurants. Room service. Conference facilities. Valet parking. Spa. Pool.

The world's most famous hotel has entered the 21st century with highest-tech facilities, but without having betrayed the character that won the Ritz its reputation. Even if nowadays you can change the video program or make a phone call without leaving your bed or marble bath (Charles Ritz was the first to provide private bathrooms for his clients), nothing has altered the pleasure of stretching out on a wide brass bed surrounded by fine antiques. Add to that an atmosphere of luxury so enveloping that a new word, "ritzy," had to be coined for it. Impeccable staff. The health spa was modeled on a thermal spa of antiquity, and the restaurant, L'Espadon, has its own garden.