Paris, France

Hôtel National des Arts & Métiers

Price per night from$240.97

Price information

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 (EUR222.73), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Haussmannien heir

Setting

Hip to the Haut Marais

A contemporary design den near the Marais, Hôtel National des Arts & Métiers combines industry and innovation in two updated Haussmann buildings. Drawing its name and inspiration from the historic nearby engineering school, the hotel incorporates industrial accents, including oxidised pipes and iron furniture with classic French style. Bright, modern rooms – many with balconies – overlook the classic rooftops of Paris. A trio of beloved local chefs prepares Italian fare, including stellar pastas and small plates, as well as spritzes and espressos. The moody bar, l’Herbarium has become a local favourite for cocktails that conjure the best of the belle époque.

Smith Extra

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A bottle of body lotion by Racine; GoldSmiths get a goodie box of Racine beauty products

Facilities

Photos Hôtel National des Arts & Métiers facilities

Need to know

Rooms

66, including 10 suites.

Check–Out

Noon. Earliest check-in, 2pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £209.94 (€245), including tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €8.13 per person per night on check-out.

More details

Rates usually exclude breakfast (buffet breakfast is available, from €25 a person).

Also

The hotel has dedicated wheelchair-accessible rooms, and the public areas are accessible.

Please note

The hotel's rooftop is currently closed for renovations. Ristorante Nationale closes from 5pm on 24 December; it is open until 4am on 31 December.

At the hotel

Fitness centre, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: Desk, minibar, free bottled water, Nespresso machines, Racines bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Set on the higher floors, l’Atelier rooms are spacious, with natural light and views over the Parisian rooftops. An in-room bar awaits would-be mixologists eager for pre-dinner aperitifs or nightcaps on the terrace.

Spa

There's no spa, but massages, manicures and pedicures are available by appointment.

Packing tips

The lobby boutique offers travel-inspired trinkets to enhance Parisian strolls.

Also

Yoga classes cam be arranged on request (from €25-45 depending on the teacher). The hotel take a €100 a night pre-authorisation fee on arrival, which will be returned on check-out.

Pet‐friendly

Dogs up to 6kg stay free; larger pets will have to stay home for this one. See more pet-friendly hotels in Paris.

Children

Children of all ages are welcome, though the hotel does not have babysitting services or designated kid-friendly activities. There are cots and cribs available.

Food and Drink

Photos Hôtel National des Arts & Métiers food and drink

Top Table

Take a table by the veranda for an airier meal and the best people-watching vantage point.

Dress Code

Silk and leather are ideal for matching the artsy industrial vibe.

Hotel restaurant

There are two. Ristorante Nationale, the primary dining space, creates an Italian trattoria experience in the heart of Paris, in a striking space featuring velvet banquettes and a striking wall of pipes. Run by local Italian expert Julien Cohen – of local favourites Pizza Chic and Grazie – in partnership with Jean-Pierre Lopes and Thomas Delafon, the restaurant serves house-made pastas, Tuscan meats and a wine list that draws from the best of the boot. For snacks throughout the day, Cicchetteria National specialises in Venetian small plates, including cheese, meats, croquettes and sandwiches, all ideal with wine, espresso or an Aperol spritz.

Hotel bar

The moody l’Herbarium bar is open each evening from 6pm until 2am, and has become a favourite hangout for in-the-know locals. Inspired by the aromas of the ingredients, each drink has an olfactory identity – such as floral, fruity or herbaceous– designed by mixologist Oscar Quagliarini, who studied perfumes to master the cocktail craft. The bar also offers a selection of Italian small plates.

Last orders

Ristorante Nationale serves breakfast from 7am to 10:30am, lunch from noon to 3pm and dinner from 7pm until 11:30pm. Chicchetteria National is open from 11am until 11pm.

Room service

A selection of Italian snacks, antipasti, meats and cheeses are available for delivery daily from noon to 11pm. A continental breakfast of infused water, coffee, juice, breads, yogurt and spreads is available from 8am to 10am.

Location

Photos Hôtel National des Arts & Métiers location
Address
Hôtel National des Arts & Métiers
243 Rue Saint-Martin, 75003 Paris, France
Paris
75003
France

Hôtel National Des Arts et Métiers is located near the Marais, in the 3rd Arrondissement of Paris.

Planes

Paris Charles de Gaulle airport is a 50-minute drive from the hotel; Air France, British Airways and EasyJet fly direct from major European cities, and Delta, United and Air France offer direct flights from the US and Asia. Paris Orly airport is 40 minutes south of the hotel, with options via Air France, EasyJet and Vueling. Contact Smith24 for transfers from either airport.

Trains

Gare du Nord, the busiest railway station in Europe and the Paris hub, is 2km from the hotel, with service to London, Brussels and Amsterdam, via Eurostar and SNC.

Automobiles

Driving in Paris is an adventure all its own, and most visitors prefer taxis, walking and public transport. Those who choose to drive can pay to use the public car park in front of the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

The hotel’s masterful arts- and industrial-inspired redesign could occupy architecture buffs for an entire day, ideally with a fresh-pulled espresso in hand. The hotel’s close proximity to the hip Marais district, means that more exceptional design is a short stroll away. For an interiors spruce in French fashion, try Made in Design, bold and bright Sentou Marais or À demain... on Rue de Turenne for antiques.

Visit the Musée Picasso for thousands of works from the prolific Spaniard, including gorgeous pieces from his blue period. The Marais is renowned for its beautiful street art, boutiques, bookshops and parks. Wander down the Rue des Rosiers, pausing for falafels from L'As du Fallafel (32 Rue des Rosiers) to get the lay of the land. Fortified, head north to Merci, a concept store that stocks linens, notebooks and fashion for men and women from coveted French labels like Isabel Marant and Roseanna, and has three cafés for lingering.

Head 10 minutes down the road from the hotel to Beaubourg, home to the Centre Pompidou, for a look at some of France’s best modern art housed in one of its most outlandish buildings. The Atelier Brancusi preserves the voluptous sculptures of Constantin Brancusi in a space designed by architect Renzo Piano with a walled garden.

Local restaurants

A few blocks west of the hotel, in the 2nd, La Bourse et La Vie is the perfect bistro for Parisian date night. Tuck into foie gras with toast points, steak frites in peppercorn sauce or classic roast chicken. For dessert, coffee-spiked chocolate mousse is ideal to split. Near the Opera, Frenchie serves a set tasting menu at lunch and dinner, featuring immaculate contemporary takes on French culinary traditions, all ideal with wine. Tables in the tiny space are tough to come by, so those who haven't booked ahead should queue for a table at the wine bar across the alley for terrines, smoked fish, pasta and meat dishes with creative, often natural wines in a roomy space that feels like a wine cave.

Local cafés

For buttery croissants that would impress even Julia Child, head for Tout Autour du Pain (134 Rue de Turenne), a 10-minute walk east of the hotel. Stock up on baguettes, éclairs and perhaps a sensible sandwich to enjoy in the Marais. Visit Breizh Café for nutty, savory buckwheat crepes filled with ham and cheese or smoked duck. Stop into The Broken Arm (12 Rue Perrée) for midday cafés au lait with pastries, all best enjoyed in the bright space or across the street on benches in the blocks-long park.

Local bars

Head for Le Mary Celeste, an oyster bar with cocktails punched up by cassis or wholegrain mustard, ideal for slurping and sipping at tiny sidewalk tables.

Reviews

Photos Hôtel National des Arts & Métiers reviews
David Annand

Anonymous review

By David Annand, Model editor

On some trips, you know your hotel is just going to be a crash pad; a place to bed down while the real adventure happens out in the wilds of the city. The kind of trip you take in your 20s maybe. And then there are other trips, when the hotel matters. Like, say, the first time you and Mrs Smith have been away without the children for three long years. A bolthole won’t do. You want it all. Comfort. Glamour. Romance. Probably Paris as a backdrop. Certainly a late-serving breakfast. Ideally, really, the Hotel National des Arts et Metiers. 

We arrive from Gare du Nord after a blissful journey, which involved no raisins jammed up noses, no fights over felt tip pens, no ill-timed expulsions of bodily fluids. But we’re still yet to slip into holiday mode. 

‘Any word from your mum?’
‘Everything’s fine.’ 
‘Is it even time for her to pick them up from school yet?’
‘No.’

Then we round the corner and there it is, the Arts et Metiers, and instantly we know that everything is going to be alright. Sometimes the simple use of a font lets you know that you’re in safe hands and the sign above the door – upper case, san serif, elegantly evocative of a stupendously expensive perfumery – is an iron-clad indication of good things to come. 
We saunter under into the welcoming arms of Rodrigo on reception and any last doubts dissipate. 

The lobby has low sofas where guests idle over magazines. A small shop sells tasteful, reassuringly expensive things. Rodrigo beguiles us, books us in, and books us tables. And then up we fly to our sixth-floor studio room. 

Roomy by Parisian standards, the light-filled studio makes best use of its space and location. Out our window we can see the mediaeval priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs latterly converted into the Metiers Art Museum. Inside the look is polished industrial. Cement walls. Black ceramics. Modern furniture. Framed prints sit on a custom shelf. It’s super-smart but extremely liveable. 

As is the whole hotel. In the basement there are treatment rooms, a gallery and a fitness space. In the summer, they open up the rooftop sun-trap of a terrace. It’s just all very comfortable and you find yourself thinking you could very happily pootle about the place all day. 

Of course we don’t because we’re in Paris without the kids (did I mention that already?) and we need to make use of every minute. 

We fly to the Musée Rodin and marvel at temporary show of his stupendous (and often pretty sexy) cut outs. We stroll arm-in-arm through the garden and then amble through pretty-pretty St Germain, stopping for a street-side carafe before the siren call of the hotel bar lures us home. 

The Herbarium is tucked away at the back of building and has become a go-to stop for in-the-know locals. We sit at the bar next to a ludicrously chic French couple in their late 50s of the kind that really, even if you were to search the whole world over, you would only find in two or three arrondissements of this fair city. In front of us, on the bar, are samples of the innovative perfume-inspired cocktails kept cheekily in diffusers so you can then spray on to testing strips and sniff them as you might in the fragrance department of Liberty. We choose a Negroni-like Enfleurage de Florence, which is light and delicate and utterly lovely. 

Our glasses drained, we float through to the Ristorante National Cucina Italiana with its velvet banquettes and industrial finishes. Our seat is up at the bar allowing us to keep a beadyish (post-cocktail) eye on chef Julien Cohen and his team and they turn out plate after plate of hearty but pretty Italian delights. We split an Italian-style parmesan soufflé with black truffle, and creamy polenta with sautéed mushrooms which we wash down with a very interesting natural wine from the Jura. After that comes linguine cacio e pepe for me and a perfect piece of sea bass for Mrs Smith. No one screams at me for not letting them watch Peppa Pig on my iPhone and the evening passes in a gorgeous boozy, creamy, cheesy haze. 

We wake the next morning and linger over breakfast. The paper is read. Coffees are sipped. Feather-light pastries are consumed with gay abandon. Mrs Smith raises an eyebrow at my plate as I return from the buffet bar with a madeleine and two financiers. 

I roll from the restaurant out the double doors to discover Paris is crowned with a perfect blue sky. We decide against our original plan to explore the Centre Pompidou (a five-minute stroll from the hotel) and instead decide to amble along the Seine to the Jardin des Tuileries where we eat chestnuts and lounge in deck chairs, scarcely able to believe our luck. 

We lunch in Montmartre and then spend the afternoon exploring the Musée Gustave Moreau. Formerly the house of the French symbolist painter it became a museum when he died at the end of the 19th century and is Paris’s answer the John Soane’s Museum. 

That night we head over to the 11th to super-cute La Buvette where we chug natural wines until we find ourselves drawn back to the hotel for a light meal in the relaxed café-like part of the restaurant and another night of gorgeous sleep in our sixth-floor idyll, the pitter patter of tiny feet blissfully absent.

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Price per night from $240.97