Le Meurice, Dorchester Collection

In the case of Le Meurice, the nickname “the hotel of kings” is not an aspiration, but a straightforward statement of fact. Since its 1835 opening it’s hosted a long list of luminaries, from heads of state like Queen Victoria and King George VI to Picasso, Dalí, and Coco Chanel. Today it’s scarcely less prestigious as a member of the Dorchester Collection — and after its most recent interior renovation, at the hands of Charles Jouffre and the Lyon-based Lally & Berger, it’s once again as fashionable as a Parisian palace hotel can be expected to be.

As renovations go, Le Meurice’s was handled with a light touch — the hotel’s Versailles-inspired opulence is very much intact, and the service remains reassuringly old-world, in the best possible sense. The rooms and suites range widely; the humblest rooms are spacious and luxurious enough, while the top-end suites are extravagant in their style, their comforts, their square footage, and their views — some face the Jardin des Tuileries, while the seventh-floor Belle Étoile suite has a private terrace with a 360-degree view of the city’s rooftops.

A lavish Valmont spa — the only one in Paris — anchors Le Meurice’s wellness program. Philippe Starck redesigned the hotel’s Restaurant Le Meurice Alain Ducasse and Restaurant Le Dalí; the latter features artwork by Philippe’s daugher Ara Starck, while both are helmed by chef Amaury Bonhours. And Cédric Grolet, the hotel’s pastry chef, shines not only at the end of the dinner menus but in his own establishment, the classic Pâtisserie du Meurice.