Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris, France: review
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Four Seasons Hotel George V is a luxury Paris hotel offering palatial interiors, a two Michelin-starred restaurant Le Cinq, fresh flower arrangements, a spa, swimming pool, and suites with colossal dressing rooms, on Avenue George V, near the Champs-Elysées, Arc de Triomphe, and Grand Palais.
Palatial comfort, space, gastronomy and the most remarkable flower displays in town sum up the sumptuous George V, crowning it over Avenue George V in the Champs-Elysées golden triangle, with countless discreet staff lurking behind scene to lay on every need.
Location
In the golden triangle of Paris on the broad avenue between the Champs-Elysées and Alma-Marceau (with George V and Alma-Marceau metro stations at either end), this area is a magnet for high-end fashion shopping, although the Arc de Triomphe, Grand Palais and the Chaillot museums (Palais de Tokyo, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Guimet, Musée de l'Homme, Cité d'Architecture) are all nearby.
Style/character
Originally opened in 1928 in honour of George V alongside its neighbour the Prince de Galles, the Four Seasons is all about traditional comfort à la française, although I can't help feeling a little sad that the original Art Deco furniture and fittings were auctioned off before it was reborn as a Four Seasons in 1999, reappearing in a Louis XV and Louis XVI style that for many visitors epitomises Paris. My favourite aspect is the incredible flower displays by the hotel's florist and artistic director Jeff Leatham that have been different each time I've come here. The vast, flower-strewn lobby, broad corridors, and large lifts cleverly belie that there are as many as 244 rooms and suites.
Service/facilities
Legions of staff are friendly yet politely discreet, with a reception and concierges' desks framing the lobby, and uniformed doormen to carry baggage or lend umbrellas, and there's even the possibility of a basket and dinner for your dog. The spacious spa has a swimming pool, fitness room and seven treatment cabins. There's a business centre, numerous meeting and conference rooms.
Rooms
Even the simplest Superior and Deluxe rooms are impressively large here; decorated in comfortable traditional style à la Louis XV, with excellent king-sized beds, period-style desks and bathrooms with lashings of marble (all with baths, except the wheelchair accessible rooms); some with patterned prints, others more pared-back and modern. Many have a balcony or terrace, while the building's U-shaped form means that even rooms overlooking the courtyard generally have a view over the city. Suites all have vast dressing rooms – ready for substantial shopping sprees; the largest Royal and Presidential suites come with lounge, office, dining room and kitchen area, ripe for business meetings or entire families. All are in various historic styles, except for the modern Penthouse in smooth marble with several terraces, a corner dining room and outdoor sunbed. Not everything was perfect though. In a €1500-a-night Deluxe room, our TV didn't work, despite someone passing by to look at it, although we were told the TV system was in the process of being changed. We also failed to find the switch to raise one of the blinds closed by turndown service, but I did like the touch of a selection of books left on the bedside table.
Food & drink
Le Cinq, determined to up its stakes on the culinary scene, did so with the arrival of chef Christian Le Squer, long-time three-star chef at Ledoyen, in late 2014. Brittany-born Le Squer is particularly at ease with fish and shellfish, including inventive marine and citrus fruit combinations. I had an extraordinary sea urchin that resembled a snowball, while another unusual starter is the "deconstructed" onion soup. A new, third restaurant is set to open in October with Mediterranean cuisine from the Riviera and northern Italy from chef Marco Garfanini. But the centrepiece of the hotel is the tapestry-hung La Galerie, which also expands into the courtyard in summer, with lovely service and pianist in the background, where the cuisine from chef David Bizet is far more serious and accomplished than what is described as "light dining" might suggest: superb poached egg with caviar, watercress and samphire; tender baby pigeon with kalamata olive puree; and strawberry and pistachio dessert. Breakfast curiously turned out to be not the choice of French, Healthy, American or Japanese breakfasts listed on the website, but a slightly peculiar buffet.
Value for money
Simplest double rooms go from €990 (£728) to €1350 (£992); the largest suites zap into five figures, and the min-ibar is probably the priciest I've ever come across, but if you're worried about that you wouldn’t be staying here. Breakfast excluded. Free Wi-Fi.
Access for guests with disabilities?
There are seven wheelchair-accessible bedrooms.
Family-friendly?
We spotted a suprising number of clearly palace-accustomed children.
Palatial comfort, space, gastronomy and the most remarkable flower displays in town sum up the sumptuous George V, crowning it over Avenue George V in the Champs-Elysées golden triangle, with countless discreet staff lurking behind scene to lay on every need.
Location
In the golden triangle of Paris on the broad avenue between the Champs-Elysées and Alma-Marceau (with George V and Alma-Marceau metro stations at either end), this area is a magnet for high-end fashion shopping, although the Arc de Triomphe, Grand Palais and the Chaillot museums (Palais de Tokyo, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Guimet, Musée de l'Homme, Cité d'Architecture) are all nearby.
Style/character
Originally opened in 1928 in honour of George V alongside its neighbour the Prince de Galles, the Four Seasons is all about traditional comfort à la française, although I can't help feeling a little sad that the original Art Deco furniture and fittings were auctioned off before it was reborn as a Four Seasons in 1999, reappearing in a Louis XV and Louis XVI style that for many visitors epitomises Paris. My favourite aspect is the incredible flower displays by the hotel's florist and artistic director Jeff Leatham that have been different each time I've come here. The vast, flower-strewn lobby, broad corridors, and large lifts cleverly belie that there are as many as 244 rooms and suites.
Service/facilities
Legions of staff are friendly yet politely discreet, with a reception and concierges' desks framing the lobby, and uniformed doormen to carry baggage or lend umbrellas, and there's even the possibility of a basket and dinner for your dog. The spacious spa has a swimming pool, fitness room and seven treatment cabins. There's a business centre, numerous meeting and conference rooms.
Rooms
Even the simplest Superior and Deluxe rooms are impressively large here; decorated in comfortable traditional style à la Louis XV, with excellent king-sized beds, period-style desks and bathrooms with lashings of marble (all with baths, except the wheelchair accessible rooms); some with patterned prints, others more pared-back and modern. Many have a balcony or terrace, while the building's U-shaped form means that even rooms overlooking the courtyard generally have a view over the city. Suites all have vast dressing rooms – ready for substantial shopping sprees; the largest Royal and Presidential suites come with lounge, office, dining room and kitchen area, ripe for business meetings or entire families. All are in various historic styles, except for the modern Penthouse in smooth marble with several terraces, a corner dining room and outdoor sunbed. Not everything was perfect though. In a €1500-a-night Deluxe room, our TV didn't work, despite someone passing by to look at it, although we were told the TV system was in the process of being changed. We also failed to find the switch to raise one of the blinds closed by turndown service, but I did like the touch of a selection of books left on the bedside table.
Food & drink
Le Cinq, determined to up its stakes on the culinary scene, did so with the arrival of chef Christian Le Squer, long-time three-star chef at Ledoyen, in late 2014. Brittany-born Le Squer is particularly at ease with fish and shellfish, including inventive marine and citrus fruit combinations. I had an extraordinary sea urchin that resembled a snowball, while another unusual starter is the "deconstructed" onion soup. A new, third restaurant is set to open in October with Mediterranean cuisine from the Riviera and northern Italy from chef Marco Garfanini. But the centrepiece of the hotel is the tapestry-hung La Galerie, which also expands into the courtyard in summer, with lovely service and pianist in the background, where the cuisine from chef David Bizet is far more serious and accomplished than what is described as "light dining" might suggest: superb poached egg with caviar, watercress and samphire; tender baby pigeon with kalamata olive puree; and strawberry and pistachio dessert. Breakfast curiously turned out to be not the choice of French, Healthy, American or Japanese breakfasts listed on the website, but a slightly peculiar buffet.
Value for money
Simplest double rooms go from €990 (£728) to €1350 (£992); the largest suites zap into five figures, and the min-ibar is probably the priciest I've ever come across, but if you're worried about that you wouldn’t be staying here. Breakfast excluded. Free Wi-Fi.
Access for guests with disabilities?
There are seven wheelchair-accessible bedrooms.
Family-friendly?
We spotted a suprising number of clearly palace-accustomed children.
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