The bedrooms feature a tapestry canopy.Credit: Supply
The creativity in the hotel’s public areas pulses through the 61 rooms, which range from 20-square-metre “classics” to family-friendly interconnecting duplex suites with views of Paris. Overlooking an interior patio-winter garden featuring dreamy wall panels by Spanish artist Sofia Pega, our 30-square-metre deluxe room has several striking touches, notably a canopy with a tapestry of a rural idyll above our queen bed. There’s surreal crustacean-patterned wallpaper in the wardrobe, where a minibar has complimentary soft drinks, infusions and a coffee machine. Other handy amenities are the room’s electric curtains, the Toto toilet (with its toasty seat) and the fragrant Diptyque products in the separate mustard-tiled shower room.
Food + drink
Quirky yet cosy, Boubale is Le Grand Mazarin’s street-level bar-restaurant. Breakfast here has a Gallic flavour, with the likes of pastries, French toast and charcuterie, but for lunch and dinner the cuisine embraces the Ashkenazi Jewish heritage of both Le Marais and Jerusalem-born, Michelin-rated chef Assaf Granit.
Quirky yet cosy, Boubale is Le Grand Mazarin’s street-level bar-restaurant.
Attracting Parisians and hotel guests alike, his dishes have eastern European and Middle Eastern influences, such as beef cheek goulash with Hungarian paprika and gnocchis, and seafood kneidlach (matzah balls). Expect upbeat background music and an enticing menu of wines and cocktails. Downstairs there’s a late-night speakeasy-style bar with live DJs.
Out + about
Parisian artist Jacques Merle has painted a ceiling fresco of Narcissus above the pool.
Le Marais is ace for wandering, window-shopping and people-watching, and you’ll find intriguing artefacts in elegant old mansions-cum-museums like the Picasso Museum or the splendid (free) Carnavalet, where Paris’ engrossing history is explored. Beyond the neighbourhood, the Pompidou Centre, the Louvre and Notre-Dame Cathedral (which reopens to visitors in December 2024) are all within a 15-minute walk. Fancy going further? Hotel de Ville metro station is just 100 metres from Le Grand Mazarin, where the concierge will also happily make recommendations.
One of the larger guest suites.
The verdict
Exquisitely crafted and superbly located, this is a fabulous addition to Paris’ high-end hotel scene. Nice (English-speaking) staff, too.
Essentials
The facade of Le Grand Mazarin.
Rooms from €520 ($863) a night. 7 Rue de la Verrerie, Paris, France. Ph: +33 1 8364 0065. See legrandmazarin.com
Our rating out of five
★★★★½
Highlight
The hotel’s attention to design detail, from the dainty leaf-shaped ceiling lamps to that stunning mural above the pool.
Lowlight
Dilemmas, dilemmas. You’ll want to savour Le Grand Mazarin. It’s lovely and you’ll be paying a fair whack to stay here. But Paris is your oyster, so you’ll want to be outside as much as possible.
The writer stayed as a guest of Le Grand Mazarin