If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR922.73), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Past and present co-exist imaginatively at Cour des Vosges, a hush-hush hotel that’s perfect for privacy seekers. This is the Paris pad for you if you’d rather steer clear of a scene and hole up in a historic mansion with a museum’s worth of artwork on its walls, sultry Seventies design and striking original features (special mention to the swoon-worthy painted wooden ceilings). Best of all? Each of the 12 rooms has its eyes set on the postcard-perfect Place des Vosges. Downstairs, you’ll find pastry perfection in the pâtisserie, a diminutive Roman bath for ablutions and the modish Marais on your doorstep.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A bottle of wine in your room on arrival and one €40 credit to spend on food and beverages
Noon. Earliest check-in, 3pm. Both can be flexible, subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £591.82 (€690), including tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €10.73 per person per night on check-out.
More details
Rates don’t usually include breakfast, which is served either in your room or downstairs in the pâtisserie. Choose from Continental or cooked options; prices range from €9 to €45.
Also
It’s now one of the most fashionable districts on earth, but until religious orders arrived in the 12th century, the Marais was a muddy swamp. In fact, the word ‘marais’ literally translated means ‘marsh’.
At the hotel
Pȃtisserie, free WiFi, electric bicycles to borrow, on-site parking. In rooms: TV, free WiFi, Playstation, Guerlain bath products, air-conditioning and free bottled water.
Our favourite rooms
You can’t go wrong, as each spacious (especially by Paris standards) room has pinch-yourself views over the pretty Place des Vosges, with its pitched-roof mansions and wide, sandy avenues. To rev the romance, request a Deluxe Suite – they have 16-feet-high ceilings, canopy beds with sliding panels (ooh là là) and a fully equipped kitchenette, so there’s no need to ever leave your love nest.
Poolside
The ground floor holds a surprising secret – behind a wrought-iron door, under a vaulted ceiling, is a toute petite heated pool in the style of a Roman bath.
Spa
Though there’s no spa, the hotel has designed its own range of facials and body treatments to have in your room. Choose from all-natural and vegan facials created by Orveda founder Sue Nabi or bodily ministrations designed by Jimmy Jarnet, a masterful masseur and personal trainer.
Packing tips
Reading glasses for getting lost in the selection of novels and arty tomes in your room. Plus, your most expensive pyjamas – it’s the kind of place that makes you want to look good even while unconscious.
Also
Due to the building’s historic bones, the hotel is unfortunately unsuitable for wheelchair users.
All ages are welcome. Be careful – little Smiths might want to skip sightseeing once they see the Playstation in your room. Toys, baby baths, and highchairs are available on request.
Sustainability efforts
All food used is organic and seasonal; there’s also a pair of electric bicycles to borrow.
Choose a seat outside under the arcades for top-tier people watching.
Dress Code
Match the desserts in pastel shades so sweet they’ll give you a toothache.
Hotel restaurant
The Salon de Thé restaurant on the ground floor serves short menus of light gourmet fare for breakfast, afternoon tea and dinner: salads, quiches, an indecently delicious truffle croque-monsieur and boeuf bourguignon. In the corner is Brach-La Pâtisserie, a glass case of temptation filled with colourful creations, cakes and pastries by Yann Brys, the Evok Group’s star baker. After a nibble of his eclairs, you may be tempted to give him a Paul Hollywood-style handshake, but we don’t advise it.
Hotel bar
There’s no bar at the hotel, but room service can deliver all types of tipples right to your door.
Last orders
The restaurant is open from 7am to 10pm daily.
Room service
A room-service menu is available around the clock.
Cour des Vosges looks out over the fountains, trees and red-brick mansions of the Place des Vosges, a manicured square in the Marais.
Planes
Paris’ main air hubs, Charles de Gaulle and Orly, are 45 minutes and 35 minutes away by car respectively; the hotel can organise private transfers on request.
Trains
Gare du Nord, the busiest railway station in Europe, is three kilometres from the hotel, with services to London, Brussels and Amsterdam via the Eurostar and SNCF.
Automobiles
You won’t need a car to explore Paris, where ambling aimlessly is almost the entire point. If you do decide to brave the fearsome ring roads, on-site parking is available for €45 a day (subject to availability).
Worth getting out of bed for
The oldest planned square in Paris, Place des Vosges has been a bourgeois meeting spot since the 17th century, when it was inaugurated as an engagement present for Louis XIII. Its beauty hasn’t diminished in the intervening centuries and the gardens, avenues and fountains are still regarded as a crowning jewel in the fashion-forward Marais neighbourhood. So, whether you want to lounge on Louis’ lawns, stroll the arcaded streets or simply find a beauteous backdrop for your #ParisIsAlwaysAGoodIdea Instagram, you’ll be in excellent company.
To delve deeper into the history of the ancient area, the hotel can arrange a walking tour of the Marais or a Vespa tour of the city that includes a picnic by the Seine.
And, though there isn’t actually a hunchback in Notre-Dame, you can visit the former home of the famous French writer who created him – just across the square is the Maison de Victor Hugo, which houses fascinating collections of photographs, drawings and texts. Once you’ve worked up an appetite, march over to the Marché Couvert les Enfants Rouges to find a colourful range of food stalls and a buzzy atmosphere to boot.
Local restaurants
Also in the Place des Vosges is legendary bistro Ma Bourgogne, which serves steak tartare and fabulous French wines on its see-and-be-seen terrace under the arcades.
If the sun is shining, take your biggest sunglasses to Jaja’s outdoor courtyard for a casual and rosé-fuelled lunch (‘Jaja’ is French slang for wine). And, to discover more of the Marais’ on-the-rise restaurant scene, stop in at Grand Coeur for a grown-up menu without the requisite pretension.
Local bars
The naughtiest name in the Evok Group’s collection (and fellow Smith spot), Sinner Paris is the last word in cocktails round these parts.
The noble Places des Vosges, one of Paris’s oldest (and loveliest) squares, was built in the 17th century by Henry IV. It’s situated in the Marais district and straddles the 3rd and 4th arrondissements, so you’re in prime position to enjoy the sights and delights of Paris. Hidden between two of its restaurants is a pair of blink-and-you’ll-miss-them doors and a small brass plaque indicating you’ve arrived at Cours des Vosges.
This isn’t the sort of hotel which has a doorman, guest lounges, a sprawling spa, multiple restaurants or glitzy bar. It’s simply an elegant townhouse with rooms – and a Roman bath.
The rooms have been beautifully created by interior designers Yann Le Coadic and Alessandro Scotto. As a designer myself – and someone who’s experience of a place very much centres around the aesthetics – I’m instantly impressed and appreciative of the overall feel and attention to detail. It’s refined, luxurious, elegant and extremely chic. It’s clear that great care has been taken to restore and protect the mansion (itself an historic landmark) whilst also weaving in sleek modern touches.
On arrival, I’m told I’ve been upgraded to a suite on the fifth floor. Fifth-floor rooms are effectively in the attic so, while it had quite low ceilings and small dormer windows, it still felt generous in scale and had prime views over the Places des Vosges.
It’s late afternoon on a warm summer’s day and the square is peppered with couples, families and groups of young people hanging out, exercising, taking a stroll and picnicking in what presents as the most idyllic chocolate-box Parisian scene.
I was grateful to have been upgraded because the additional adjoining room – complete with little sofa, TV and dining table – became more useful, knowing that the hotel doesn’t have any shared guest living spaces.
Breakfast is offered either in your room or in the ground-floor café. During my stay I tried both options. I adore a hotel breakfast and generally prefer to sit in the restaurant and really soak it all in, so on my first morning I went downstairs to sample petit déjeuner at the Salon de Thé: a tiny patisserie by the much-lauded Yann Brys.
In all honesty, I found the experience slightly underwhelming. I was hoping for something a bit more… resplendent. It’s the perfect spot for a pastry and a coffee – and I notice the place is really busy by mid-afternoon, with delicate little cakes being served to a happy clientele – but I prefer breakfast to be a more indulgent, salubrious affair. That said, the coffee, pain au chocolate and orange juice were all absolutely delicious.
So on the second morning, I decided to have breakfast in my (adjoining) room. It was glorious. I opened the little windows onto the square and enjoyed the fresh morning breeze and gorgeous views over a tray heaving with deliciousness.
All in all, the room facilities are generous, sumptuous and very well provided for. The bathroom is masculine and dark, in shades of black marble and neutral tiles with low lighting. It feels glamorous and timeless and, crucially, different to any more residential or home-type setting, which I think is always nice when you’re away travelling.
The bedlinen deserves a special mention. It is incredibly sumptuous, silky soft and feels very expensive. Interestingly, I notice that it’s actually for sale and find myself vaguely interested in buying some as it’s just so dreamy – a thought I’ve never had before on sampling a hotel bed!
I read that Anatole Desachy, the independent bookseller, has selected the books and magazines at the hotel, which certainly gives the impression that someone (I expect the owner) has a real vision for his guests’ experience. The carefully selected ones in my room provide a really cosy ambience. Also, hotel bedroom art is notoriously rubbish and overlooked, so I really appreciated living among some original and meaningful artworks during my stay. In my room is a stunning tapestry wallhanging, which sits alongside some lovely drawings and original abstract paintings. The bed itself is brushed stainless steel and the cold, reflective hard finish of the bed is perfectly juxtaposed by the rawness of the artwork and the cosiness of the soft furnishings.
The collection of art throughout the hotel is expertly curated, in fact. Covetable sketches, unique sculptures, refined and interesting tapestries, and original, expressive paintings are everywhere. I discovered it’s the work of the gallerist Amélie du Chalard of the Amelie art gallery, which, by chance, I also enjoy visiting on my stay. (It’s a gargantuan and awe-inspiring space, clearly once industrial, which she has converted into a sprawling art gallery – entirely original and very special.)
The concierge helped me book a table one evening at the nearby Grand Cours – and the best thing about this delicious restaurant was something that seemingly happens entirely by chance. As we sat outside on a balmy evening, the dance school that occupies the second floors of the building had their windows open during rehearsals so throughout the course of our dinner, we were able to listen to and catch glimpses of their classes, from ballet to Afrobeat. It was romantic and magical.
Cours des Vosges, though, is a very private place. You don’t go to be seen or because you’re ticking off the city’s latest hotspot. It’s intimate and human in scale, and is so quiet that I barely saw another guest during my stay.
The setting is the cherry on the cake – somehow so perfectly Parisian in its mood, you instantly feel that you’re realising your own Gallic holiday fantasies.
Shades of green, blue slate roofs and that familiar creamy greige of the architecture surround you. A short walk leads you to the buzzy streets of the Marais, peppered with stylish boutiques and excellent cafés, with prime people-watching possibilities.
When I think back to my hotel, I see plush velvet, glossy metal, deep pile maroon carpets, moody marble and fantastic art. This hotel is sexy-chic incarnate. Anyone looking for a low-key, under-the-radar base from which to dive off and explore Paris needs look no further.
