The Lutetia opened on the corner of Boulevard Raspail and Rue de Sèvres in 1910, built by Le Bon Marché, the department store across the square, for its customers from the provinces and abroad. The stone façade, carved with vines, is Art Nouveau; the Art Deco came inside in the 1920s. Façades, roofs and principal salons have been listed historic monuments since 2007. Josephine Baker was a regular. Requisitioned under the Occupation, it took in a great many of those returning from the Nazi camps between April and August 1945, as a plaque by the door records. Jean-Michel Wilmotte restored it from 2014, it reopened in July 2018 with 184 rooms in place of about 230, and Mandarin Oriental has run it since April 2025.
What separates the rooms is the outlook. The Grand Superior Room, at 33 square metres, and the 40 square metre Deluxe Room both look onto the inner courtyard. The Deluxe Balcony Room is the same 40 square metres with a balcony over the boulevard, and the Eiffel View Deluxe Balcony Room puts that balcony on the highest floors, where the Eiffel Tower rises 2.5 km away across Square Boucicaut and the rooftops, with the gilded Invalides dome beside it. All four share tinted oak floors, Murano glass wall lights and Carrara marble bathrooms. Above them are eight signature suites, among them the Haute Couture Suite made with Isabelle Huppert and a rooftop penthouse hung with pieces from Francis Ford Coppola's collection.
This is the all-rounder because it covers the city, the spa and the evening without asking you to choose. Under it is a 700 square metre spa with a 17-metre pool, hammam, sauna and six treatment rooms, and the pool opens from 7am to 10pm, with children welcome alongside an adult in two sessions, until noon and from 2pm to 7pm. Bar Joséphine keeps the frescoes uncovered in the restoration, with live music Thursday to Saturday, and Brasserie Lutetia on the corner serves sole meunière and a seafood counter from breakfast to 10:30pm. Outside, Sèvres-Babylone station is two minutes' walk, Le Bon Marché four, the Café de Flore nine and the Jardin du Luxembourg ten.
The entry room is modest for a palace and looks inward, so the balcony categories are where the stay changes. Nothing in the house holds a Michelin star. Rates start near €1,470 for the entry room in February and climb in spring, autumn and the fashion weeks, with city tax of €15.93 per adult per night on top. Book it for the Left Bank's only Palace, Saint-Germain on foot and a proper pool to come back to, and plan some dinners out.
