France Autumn 2014 No.8

Trendy, comfortable, friendly,
Hotel Lancaster in Paris
“It is a very high valued first-class hotel. The staff is the best I’ve ever met in this whole
city.” “They treated us like royalty”, “everything is near to perfection”, “The setting
was perfect”, “a large bathroom, everything was marble, sumptuous”, “the restaurant
is really great!” Those are the comments that appear most often on the hotel’s
reservation page.
Hotel Lancaster has a romantic, classic French style. The earliest mention in
History goes back to year 1889. Over more than a century ago, the owners
came and went; Princes and Princesses’ residence became a business for rich
merchants, then the trademark hotel of a consortium. Most of the furniture,
clockworks, and masters’ paintings are antiques and original works. One of the
owners was a horse riding aficionado, his riding gears are still on display at the
hotel’s entrance. Today, the owners of the hotel is a French couple, Mr and Mrs
Esnée.
Separated from its bustling surrounding by bushes, Lancaster Hotel has a
Haussmann style outer design. The visitor discovers that the narrow rue de
Berri can also harbor such a “big-bellied” building. The main hall is enveloped
in warmth and comfort, completely cut from outside, with dim lighting, warm
fireplace, and zero noise. The hotel counts 57 rooms, set around the zen garden
in the center. Every suite was named after a celebrity, like Marlene Dietrich.
For during WW2, the famous German diva chose this hotel as her home for 3
years. Elisabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, Grace Kelly, all those great names had been
captured by the charm of the hotel.
Some suites have their own boudoir and offer a view on the Eiffel Tower. They
also provide a patio and an iPod station. If needed, the hotel can appoint a
polyglot waiter, set hypoallergenic beddings, etc. Obviously, a hotel in the center
of the city can not possibly suppress all outside noises, so light sleepers can
request a room closer to the garden side.
The staff will never keep a client waiting or put them under pressure. They will
attentively take care of your spirit, think ahead of you, and even plan things
better than you would have planned them yourself. You can easily tell when a
suite is occupied, for a rose will stand guard by the door.
« La Table du Lancaster » is a Michelin star restaurant equipped with a bar. The
chef Julien Boucheteau is also well praised.
The hotel is less than 500 m away from the Champs Elysées, near the Arch of
Triumph and the Grand Palais, and not far from Monceau park or the Eiffel
Tower. One can get to George V metro station in a 3 minute walk, take metro line
1 and reach the Louvre and the Marais area in no time.
High standard service, perfect geography and flawless decoration, these became
the most common epithet for Lancaster Hotel. As one of the world’s “top class
hotel”, its place in the esteem of Anglo-American tourists is unchallenged. It
inherited the elegant tradition of Europe and its service that gives importance to
small things, wrought in historical details but still shining today.
Everything is according to the 3 characteristics it had when it first became a hotel
in 1925: trendy, comfortable, friendly; never losing sight of their first goal.
© Hôtels Lancaster
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