Commissioned by the Boucicaut family — founders of Le Bon Marché, the world's first department store — and completed in 1910 to designs by architects Louis-Charles Boileau and Henri Tauzin, the building at the corner of Boulevard Raspail and Rue de Sèvres has always been a statement about what the Left Bank expects of itself. After a four-year restoration completed in 2018, it reopened as the Mandarin Oriental Lutetia, carrying 184 rooms and suites across seven floors of flamboyant Art Nouveau stonework — the sculpted limestone facade, with its bowed balconies and domed corner pavilion, left exactly as Haussmann's Paris intended such buildings to age. The interiors, directed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, resolve a genuine tension between the building's ornamental past and a contemporary Parisian restraint. Guest rooms employ vertical-ribbed oak panelling as headboard walls, herringbone parquet underfoot, and onyx ceiling medallions that glow amber at dusk — warm without sentimentality. The bar preserves its original vaulted ceiling with faded painted cartouches intact, a dark sculpted bronze counter positioned beneath the plasterwork as a deliberate counterpoint rather than a restoration exercise. Most arresting is the brasserie, where a vast stained-glass ceiling commissioned from artist Yan Pei-Ming floods the room in saturated colour, its figurative exuberance set against ivory carved walls — the building's century-old bones in direct conversation with the present.

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A minute's walk from Sèvres-Babylone metro station, this grand hotel is 2 km from the Louvre and Notre-Dame cathedral. Stylish rooms with art deco accents have flat-screens, Wi-Fi and minibars; most offer river views. Upgraded rooms add reading nooks, and suites feature sitting areas or living rooms, plus tea and coffeemakers; some add balconies and/or views of the Eiffel Tower. Room service is available 24/7, and kids age 10 and under stay at no cost. There's an acclaimed brasserie, a refined cocktail bar and an elegant restaurant with open-air dining, as well as an outdoor pool, a spa and a gym. Parking is available for a fee.