The catch at Le Grand Mazarin

The Classic Room is 20 m² and sleeps two adults at most. The next two categories promise less than their names: the Superior runs from 20 to 25 m², so it can be no bigger than a Classic, and the Deluxe from 23 to 33 m², so it can be smaller than the best Superiors or larger than a Prestige. The Prestige Room, at 29 to 31 m², is the first category with a narrow range, half as big again as the Classic. Every category has a tapestry canopy over the bed and chevron parquet underfoot, so nothing is skimped on the decoration; what the Classic lacks is floor space. On the same late-February night the Prestige cost €163 more than the Classic.

Le Grand Mazarin is built for evenings as much as for sleep. Le Bar de Boubalé is open from 5 pm to 2 am every day, and from Thursday to Saturday DJ sets start during dinner and the night carries on in Le Petit Bazar, the basement speakeasy, until 2 am. Outside, the hotel fills the corner of Rue de la Verrerie and Rue des Archives, opposite the BHV Marais, in a district that stays busy late on Friday and Saturday nights. Guests in street-side rooms mention the noise at weekends, and the advice they pass on is a high floor or a room at the back. Each category is sold as one, facing either the street or the inner patio, so the quiet side is a request rather than something you can book.

The mosaic pool under Jacques Merle's painted vault is the hotel's best-known photograph, and it is as shown: a pool dug beneath the building, open to hotel guests, with a jacuzzi and a hammam beside it. It is also 8 metres long. That makes it a pool for a swim after a day on foot and a sit in the jacuzzi, not for a workout, and the wellness area around it is small: one treatment room, with massages and facials from €90 for 30 minutes to €315 for 90, and a gym open 24 hours a day. A treatment cancelled less than 24 hours ahead is charged in full, and one brought to your room costs at least €80 more.

Boubalé is the hotel's only restaurant, a room of painted ceilings and velvet serving Levantine and Mediterranean sharing plates from noon to 10.30 pm, with mains from €27 to €42 and a weekday lunch at €25 for two courses. It holds no MICHELIN star, and its kitchen has changed hands twice since it opened in 2023, most recently in the summer of 2026. Guests praise the rooms, the staff, the pool and the location far more often than the food, and the restaurant and its breakfast, a buffet from 7 am to 10.30 am, are what they rate lowest. It is included in some rates and charged on others.

The entry room starts at about €525 a night on midweek dates in late February, and January, February and August are the cheapest months. In May, June and September the cheapest room typically costs about €770 to €815 a night, in October about €1,100, and one night this October passes €2,000. On top of every rate comes the Paris city tax for a five-star hotel, €11.70 per adult per night in 2026, which adds €70.20 to three nights for two. Parking is by valet, at a price the hotel does not publish, or in public car parks nearby, and small dogs are accepted for a fee.