Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Ritz Paris is the original home of Parisian decadence. Since 1898, this luxury hotel has occupied its spot on the Place Vendôme — arguably one of the most chic addresses in the City of Light — and maintained a reputation as one of the finest hotels in the world.
Ritz Paris reopened in June 2016 after a four-year refurbishment with Ritz Club Paris, a new spa created in collaboration with Chanel. This is a natural home for the iconic fashion house — the luxury label’s founder, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, lived in a suite at the iconic hotel for more than 30 years.
The spa feels exclusive, out of the way and drenched in ageless elegance. This is the only Chanel-branded spa in the world, and all treatments were created in collaboration between the hotel’s beauty experts and the sentinels of style and skincare at Coco’s fabled house.
- The Paris spa is
an homage to Mademoiselle Chanel, bathed in the label’s signature beige and
black and featuring treatment rooms infused with a Chanel scent created
exclusively for Ritz Paris.
- The emphasis here
is on facials and skincare. Chanel created five bespoke oils for the spa’s
treatments that are only available at the hotel.
- Coco once said, “Beauty
treatments should start with the heart and soul,” and this ethos flows through
the spa menu. All therapies are designed to nurture inner tranquillity to revitalize
outer beauty.
- Be sure to look
for the Chinese landscapes that echo throughout the spa’s décor. They are re-creations
of a treasured Chinese screen that Coco kept upstairs in her suite on the
second floor of Ritz Paris.
- The luxury spa also offers beauty services.
If you’re attending the social event of the season, ask for a Chanel makeup artist
to get you red-carpet ready.
- The spa is often
booked solid, especially around Paris fashion weeks, when it’s common for the
industry’s royalty to stay upstairs at the storied hotel.
- After your
treatment, ask for one of the wellness cocktails created for the spa by talented
bartender Colin Field.
- Not all spa
treatments give you access to Ritz Paris Club’s facilities.
- Coming as a
couple? Ask for treatment room 2.55, which has twin massage tables as well as
its own discreet changing and shower areas.
- The range is
reassuringly focused — there are only eight Chanel treatments available, though
all take at least 75 minutes and some clock in at an indulgent three hours.
- The signature service
is Le Grand Soin, a face and body ritual that culminates in a thin layer of
collagen being applied to your skin with the strokes of a fine brush.
- Most of the spa
menu focuses on facials, except for L’Allure de Chanel, a 90-, 120- or
150-minute body massage that begins with a perfume ceremony during which you can
select your ideal scent profile.
- The massage
technique employed here is designed to stimulate the fasciae — the fine
membrane of tissue just below the skin. This is believed to release both physical
and emotional tension.
- Ritz Club Paris also
includes a hair salon helmed by David Mallett, whose clientele includes Natalie
Portman, Kate Winslet and Vogue Paris’
editor-in-chief Emmanuelle Alt.
- No visit to Ritz
Paris would be complete without a dip in the luxury hotel’s fabled swimming
pool — a silent oasis of calm inspired by the baths of ancient Greece and Rome.
- Spa treatments
can be upgraded to include pool access and use of the Ritz Club’s saunas and
steam rooms — it’s the perfect way to prep for a day of relaxation.
- The Ritz Club offers
an array of fitness classes, from yoga to aquabike. Regular visitors to Paris
can arrange an annual pass to the spa and all its facilities.
Indoor pool
Salon
