EGN NEWS DESK
If you’re planning to attend the Paris Olympics and see a little bit of Europe this summer season, you could have quite a lot of plush new motels from which to decide on (although they’re prone to refill rapidly). Whether you’re going to the Games or just happening trip, you’ll discover recent boutique properties in Paris and lots of extra which can be a simple flight away, be it to the French Riviera, Rome, or fittingly, an island in Greece, the birthplace of the traditional video games.
Paris
Hôtel Balzac
Beginning June 1, after a two-year renovation, Hôtel Balzac, a member of Relais & Châteaux, the luxurious resort and restaurant community, is planning to open within the Eighth Arrondissement, inside strolling distance of the Champs-Élysées. Meant to really feel like a Parisian dwelling and impressed by Nineteen Thirties model, the resort is a sister property of the comfortable Relais Christine within the Sixth Arrondissement, in addition to the Saint James Paris within the sixteenth Arrondissement.
With interiors designed by Festen Architecture, there will probably be 58 rooms and suites in soothing impartial hues, some with views of the Eiffel Tower. Beyond your room you’ll discover a lounge the place you may take pleasure in breakfast earlier than strolling the well-known boulevard; a Japanese-inspired spa for remedies upon your return; a cocktail bar; and Pierre Gagnaire, a Michelin-starred restaurant with trendy French delicacies. Prices from 590 euros, or about $630 an evening.
Maison Proust
Like a number of of the newest motels in Paris, comparable to Hotel Norman and Le Grand Mazarin, this sizzling spot within the Marais is an intimate affair with simply 23 rooms and suites. A homage to the novelist Marcel Proust, the resort options luxurious areas that conjure the Belle Époque and in them you’ll uncover objects linked to the resort’s namesake, together with an autographed copy of “Swann’s Way.”
Designed by Jacques Garcia, the French inside decorator recognized for luxurious areas just like the Hôtel Costes in Paris and La Mamounia in Marrakech, Maison Proust is a member of the Collection Maisons Particulières, a gaggle of motels designed to really feel like mansions. Each of the glamorous rooms are impressed by personalities from Proust’s world, together with Colette and Monet.
If you may’t handle to nab one, you may nonetheless go to the bar the place on Fridays, Colin Field, previously the pinnacle bartender at Bar Hemingway on the storied Ritz Paris, is now creating cocktails (from 25 euros, or about $27) like L’Élixir de Proust, with raspberry essence and Champagne. You also can unwind at Spa La Mer, the place there’s a hammam and pool.
Yet even with out all that, the resort’s location within the Marais — amid eating places, outlets and locations just like the Musée National Picasso-Paris and the Musée Carnavalet — makes it an enviable spot from which to step out and discover one of many world’s most walkable cities. Prices from €950 (with slight seasonal variation).
AREV Saint Tropez
Within strolling distance of the colourful village of St.-Tropez, this 43 room-and-suite resort opened in March with flowering bushes, a pool surrounded by striped umbrellas, and an out of doors bar the place frozen rosé awaits. The fashionable Pampelonne Beach and its seashore golf equipment are a quick drive away, whereas smaller close by seashores provide the chance for a fast dip. Or keep put and take pleasure in a therapeutic massage on the spa, head exterior for a dawn Pilates or yoga class, or hop on a Peloton bike on the health heart. Unlike the Olympics, video games at AREV Saint Tropez, like pétanque and padel, will be performed in between glasses of rosé.
The rooms (some with non-public terraces and patios with flowers) have been designed by Luis Bustamante, with splashes of blue, white and crimson, making a nautical really feel even if you’re not lounging by the ocean. Explore exterior your room and also you’ll come throughout the Strand Restaurant and Champagne Lounge. The unique Strand, an area crowd-pleaser, closed years in the past, although this reincarnation at AREV Saint Tropez hopes to deliver again among the joie de vivre of its predecessor with dwell music, French wines and modern takes on regional dishes comparable to thon de Méditerranée, crimson tuna atop crispy risotto. For dessert, strive the rice pudding or the chocolate soufflé. Prices from €1,440 June by August, and beginning at €590 from October by March.
Nice, France
Hôtel du Couvent
Set in a convent relationship to the seventeenth century, this 88 room-and-suite resort plans to open in June, when it should provide company glimpses into its monastic previous. The property’s restoration is being spearheaded by Valéry Grégo, who based Perseus, a builder and operator of motels, together with Le Pigalle in Paris. There will probably be a vegetable and herb backyard, a bakery and an herbalist store the place you may cease in for custom-made teas with herbs from the backyard.
Vegetables, fruits and eggs from each the backyard and an off-site farm in Touët-sur-Var could also be served on the resort’s eating places: Le Restaurant du Couvent, Le Bistrot des Serruriers and La Guinguette Café, the place you may sip a drink within the backyard close to the lap pool. Wander the grounds and make the most of the studio for yoga, train and meditation, or partake of a sequence of thermal “Roman baths.” The baths are a nod to the stays of the Roman baths in close by Cimiez, the place you may as well go to the Musée National Marc Chagall and Musée Matisse.
Return to the resort, a part of the Luxury Collection from Marriott, with inside design by Festen Architecture, and to the serene colours of your ethereal room. Prices from €390 an evening.
Rome
Casa Monti
On May 31, Leitmotiv — the group behind the buzzy, garden-themed La Fantaisie boutique resort in Paris — is planning to open their first property exterior of France: Casa Monti, in Rome.
The resort is in Rome’s Monti neighborhood, dappled with cafes and eating places, and takes its inspiration from the world’s artists, encouraging company to consider themselves as artists in residence. Past its 18th-century facade are frescoes and 36 rooms and suites which can be awash with shade and daring patterns by the inside designer Laura Gonzalez. You’re inside strolling distance of must-see sights just like the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. And upon getting back from a day of exploring you may drop by the spa, linger over dinner — indoors or al fresco — on the resort restaurant after which watch night time fall out of your perch on the rooftop bar. Prices from €450 an evening.
Avant Mar
Rising from the Greek island of Paros, this escape on Piperi seashore blends delicate sand with Cycladic cubic model structure. The resort has 38 rooms and suites, together with some with non-public plunge swimming pools. If you may handle to depart yours behind to discover the grounds, you’ll discover the wellness space, the place you will get a therapeutic massage or physique remedy outside in a personal curtained chamber. Avant Mar’s title joins the French phrase for “earlier than” with the Spanish phrase for “the ocean,” highlighting the resort’s location “in entrance of the ocean,” and there’s an open-air theater that can be utilized for yoga and Pilates upon request, in addition to an Olympics-worthy, 55-meter-long swimming pool.
Back on dry land, a gin-and-tonic bar known as the Bridge plans to open the top of this month with views of the Aegean Sea. And mark your calendar for July 10 to 13 when the Japanese chef Nobu Matsuhisa will probably be on the resort’s waterside restaurant, Matsuhisa Paros, for the Nobu Food Festival. (The restaurant is scheduled to open for the season on June 7). For Greek fare on the resort, go to Thymes for breakfast, lunch or dinner by the pool. And don’t neglect dessert. Stop into Figs, the resort’s pastry store, to get your repair of conventional Greek sweets. Prices from €715 an evening.
Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and join our weekly Travel Dispatch e-newsletter to get knowledgeable recommendations on touring smarter and inspiration on your subsequent trip. Dreaming up a future getaway or simply armchair touring? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024.
