Paris, France · Palace Hotel · ★★★★★
Mandarin Oriental Lutetia, Paris
The Left Bank's palace. Boulevard Raspail, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, since 1910.
The Left Bank's palace. Boulevard Raspail, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, since 1910.
"The Left Bank Palace-grade hotel, Mandarin Oriental took over in 2024, the 1910 Saint-Germain landmark, the literary-quarter address."
Why this rank, Hôtel Lutetia is the Left Bank's only Palace-grade hotel, the 1910 Art Nouveau-meets-Art Deco building at 45 Boulevard Raspail in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The Set Hotels group acquired the property from Starwood Capital in 2010; the €200 million Jean-Michel Wilmotte renovation completed in 2018 returned the building to current luxury specification. Mandarin Oriental took over operations in early 2024, applying brand service standards while preserving the property's Left Bank literary heritage. 184 rooms and suites. Brasserie Lutetia runs the all-day program. Bar Joséphine, named for Josephine Baker who lived in the building 1922-1925, is one of Paris's most-photographed hotel bars. The Akasha Spa occupies a dedicated floor with the Left Bank's only hotel swimming pool. The Lutetia Suite at 110 sq m faces Boulevard Raspail. Best for stays calibrated for the Left Bank, literary-quarter visits, and proximity to Le Bon Marché. The 2024 Mandarin Oriental takeover added Asian-luxury service to a property rooted in Saint-Germain literary heritage.
Best room: Saint-Germain Suite, corner suite with Boulevard Raspail and Bon Marché views.
"The Right Bank has more palaces. The Left Bank has the Lutetia, and the Lutetia has always known it doesn't need the competition."
The Hôtel Lutetia is one of the most culturally layered addresses in Paris. Built in 1910 at the moment when Art Nouveau was giving way to Art Deco, its facade is a study in transition, sinuous organic forms meeting the geometric confidence that would define the following decade. It opened as the first grand hotel on the Left Bank, and Saint-Germain-des-Prés has never entirely recovered from the honour.
The hotel's history is inseparable from Parisian literary and artistic life. Picasso stayed here. Joyce corrected proofs here. Charles de Gaulle held his wedding reception in the ballroom. After the Liberation, it served as a reception centre for concentration camp survivors, a function the hotel has never pretended didn't happen, which says something about the relationship between French luxury and French memory. Mandarin Oriental's takeover and extended renovation returned the Lutetia to active palace life in 2018 with 184 rooms, each with bespoke contemporary furnishings, oak floors, and Statuario marble bathrooms.
The Brasserie Lutetia is the social heart of the hotel, the kind of Parisian brasserie that functions as neighbourhood institution as much as hotel restaurant. The oysters, the Burgundy list, and the choreography of a full room on a weekday lunch remain among the better things you can do in the 6th arrondissement. The bar serves cocktails under the original Art Deco murals with the kind of absorbed competence that requires no performance.
The Akasha Spa is an achievement. Inspired by the four classical elements, it encompasses a 17-metre indoor pool, rare in Paris hotels at any tier, sauna, steam room, treatment rooms, and a fitness centre that matches the Mandarin Oriental standard across the group. The spa experience is intentionally contemplative: low music, considered lighting, and treatments that draw from integrative wellness as much as traditional luxury protocols.
The location deserves specific attention. Boulevard Raspail places you between Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Montparnasse, with Le Bon Marché a five-minute walk, the Luxembourg Gardens ten minutes, and the Musée d'Orsay within walking distance across the Pont Royal. This is the Paris that belongs to books and galleries and long lunches that become dinner, and the Lutetia is its natural headquarters.
The Lutetia is the anniversary hotel for couples who have already done the Right Bank palaces and want something with more personality and more Paris. The Saint-Germain location puts galleries, bookshops, and serious restaurants within walking distance. The spa makes an ideal shared afternoon. Book dinner at the Brasserie on arrival, the corner booth, the one with the mural behind it.
The Lutetia has always attracted writers and thinkers travelling alone, and the hotel's culture supports that instinct. The Brasserie welcomes solo diners at the bar without the theatrical pity that plagues lesser establishments. The spa is exceptional for solo wellness. The neighbourhood offers the most intellectually engaged walking in Paris. Mandarin Oriental's service model treats solo guests as principals, not afterthoughts.
For honeymooners who read, who care about design, and who don't want their Paris honeymoon to look like everyone else's Paris honeymoon, the Lutetia is the correct answer. The Art Deco rooms are genuinely beautiful. The neighbourhood is Paris at its most authentically cultured. And the hotel's Mandarin Oriental honeymoon programme, room upgrades, amenities, the full welcome, is executed with the group's characteristic attention to detail.
Rates shown are approximate. Verify at time of booking.
The King's Suite
Monthly. No noise.
Editorial · #13 on the Top 20 Paris Hotels 2026 list
Mandarin Oriental Lutetia Paris ranks #13 as the only Left Bank Palace-grade property, Hôtel Lutetia, the 1910 Art Nouveau landmark at 45 Boulevard Raspail in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The Mandarin Oriental takeover in early 2024 added the brand's Asian-luxury service standards to a property whose identity is rooted in Saint-Germain literary culture. James Joyce, Josephine Baker, Henri Matisse, and Picasso were all residents at points in the Lutetia's history; the heritage is genuine.
For Paris visitors, the Lutetia is the address for stays calibrated specifically for the Left Bank. Le Bon Marché, Paris's first department store and one of its most-celebrated, is across the boulevard. Saint-Germain-des-Prés village center is three blocks south; the Jardin du Luxembourg is six blocks south; the Musée d'Orsay is ten minutes by foot north along Boulevard Raspail. Bar Joséphine and the Brasserie Lutetia operate as working Paris destination dining and drinking. The Akasha Spa has the only hotel swimming pool on the Left Bank.