The monogrammed limestone arch visible on the facade tells the whole story before you step inside: this is the former La Samaritaine department store, the Art Nouveau and Art Deco retail cathedral that Henri Sauvage and Frantz Jourdain built on the Seine's right bank between 1903 and 1928, closed for nearly two decades before LVMH — whose interlocked initials are carved into that same stonework — transformed it into the flagship of its Cheval Blanc hotel brand. The renovation, completed in 2021, was led by architects Sanaa, who inserted a rippling glass facade along the Rue de Rivoli frontage while preserving the Sauvage-era masonry elsewhere. Peter Marino designed the 72-room interior, bringing his characteristic fluency in contemporary art and haute couture craft to a building that already carried enormous symbolic weight. Marino's palette throughout is warm without sentiment — cream plaster, caramel leather at the writing desks, textured wool upholstery in sand and ochre, the occasional sculptural ceramic lamp in chalky white. The restaurant, photographed here with saffron and coral armchairs and boldly patterned roman blinds, swings the mood into something more vibrant, Seine-facing windows framing the Île de la Cité. The spa pool is perhaps the most theatrical space in the building: an elongated lap pool tiled in undulating turquoise mosaic that throws rippled light across the ceiling in waves, floor-to-ceiling glass opening onto rooftop Paris.

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