Hôtel Molitor Paris

Molitor opened in August 1929 as Lucien Pollet's Art Deco swimming baths beside the Bois de Boulogne. In June 1930 Johnny Weissmuller, the Olympic swimmer and later Tarzan, gave exhibitions there, and in July 1946 Louis Réard showed the first bikini at the pool. The baths closed in 1989, were listed as a historic monument in 1990 and became a canvas for street artists. The concrete was judged past saving, so in 2012 almost all of it was demolished, bar the entrance on Avenue de la Porte Molitor and some of Louis Barillet's 1929 stained glass. The pools and cabin galleries were rebuilt as a close copy, with new floors of rooms on top, and Molitor reopened on 19 May 2014 as an Accor MGallery hotel.

The 124 rooms and suites fill those floors around the outdoor pool, so the building reads like the deck of a liner, with interiors by Jean-Philippe Nuel. The 22 m² Superior has either a pool or a Paris view, and the 26 m² Deluxe is the first with the pool guaranteed. Both have showers, not baths. A version of the 30 m² Executive has a glass roof and a round porthole onto the outdoor pool, and the Executive with Terrace adds 80 m² of private terrace on the city side. Above them sit the 50 m² Pool Suites, some with a balcony over the water, and the 60 m² La Grande Suite, facing Paris.

The pools are the reason to book. The outdoor pool is 46 metres, four short of the 1929 one, and ringed by tiers of blue cabin doors. The indoor pool is 33 metres under a glass roof, and street artists have painted the 70 cabins around it. Both are heated, access to at least one is guaranteed all year, and swimming is included in the room. The Spa by Clarins adds 13 treatment rooms, a private spa suite and hammams. Breakfast is served facing the outdoor pool, the Bar Bikini terrace looks onto it, and the rooftop, with the Eiffel Tower in view, opens from May to September.

The trade is distance. Auteuil is the western edge of the city, 7 km from Notre-Dame, and the Métro into the centre is a ten-minute walk, so evenings in town start with a ride. Members of the hotel's Molitor Club share the pools and take classes in them. Rates peak in June, as Roland-Garros finishes up the road, and match nights at the Parc des Princes fill the streets. Book it if swimming, the spa and the building are the holiday and Paris is the backdrop. For a first visit built around museums and walking, stay nearer the river.