After midnight in the elegant Rue de Faubourg Saint-Honoré, a gaggle of young night owls spills through the revolving door of number 112. Here, concealed from the outside world across the tapestry-clad lobby, a metamorphosis is underfoot. As the evening draws, the hushed lounge prepares to welcome revellers with disco balls hung alongside masterpieces from the Oetker family’s private collection, violet lighting illuminating the centuries-old wood panelling. A brazen neon sign reveals the event’s name: “BAD”, which stands for “Bristol after Dark”. It’s a place for the after-hours crowd to swill vintage bubbles and exquisite tapas as a line-up of DJs spins a chicly underground atmosphere.

(Photo: Quentin Jumeaucourt)

Many view Le Bristol Paris as a bastion of French classicism in the trend-loving hotel industry. In reality, it’s one of very few establishments of its calibre to successfully strike a balance between tradition and innovation, continuously surprising guests – and its hospitality peers – with bold, savvy strategic choices. The decoration of its 188 rooms and suites may maintain an old-world sheen, but that’s just the start: the hotel entrusted the renovation of its Imperial Suite to contemporary visual artist George Condo, and its Honeymoon Suite features a six-metre bas-relief by Dimitri Rybaltchenko. It embraced the digital age with an NFT club granting members exclusive perks and blockchain art installations created alongside digital-art platform LaCollection. Most recently, Le Bristol collaborated on a capsule collection of travel essentials with sportswear brand Sporty & Rich, whose founder, Emily Oberg, has since launched a line dedicated to sexual wellbeing.

(Photo: Claire Cocano)

The only cloud on the horizon is its fine-dining concept, Epicure, which lacks imagination despite its three Michelin stars. Executive chef Arnaud Faye’s seasonal, vegetable-heavy menu and light, carefully calibrated sauces are conservative and considered to the extent that they lose spontaneity. In the same vein, the spa’s choice to partner with La Mer rather than a more modern brand feels out of step with the times. But Le Bristol doesn’t need to prove itself – it can rely on a name that already says plenty. But here’s a twist: that name doesn’t come, as often assumed, from the elegant cardstock, but from the globetrotting, art-loving fourth Earl of Bristol, Frederick Hervey. With that lineage, the hotel has truly earned its capital B – and it continues to prove that a grand Parisian hotel doesn’t need to wait a century to reinvent itself.

(Photo: Eric Martin)

Zero-Kilometre Shopping

Keep an eye out for these standout établissements a stone’s throw from the hotel

120 metres away: A&R Fleury

The Fleury family has art in its blood: the patriarch, Christian, a specialist in the early avant-garde movements of the twentieth century, founded his first gallery in 1998. Ten years later, his sons, Alexandre and Richard, followed in his footsteps with a more contemporary space featuring works by Jean Dubuffet, Alicia Penalba, Pierre Soulages and Victor Vasarely.

(Photo courtesy of A&R Fleury)

550 metres away: BBT

Le Bon, Le Beurre & Le Truand (based on the French title of Sergio Leone’s iconic film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) still serves the sandwich of yesteryear: a baguette made with organic farmhouse flours, the Mauriac family’s traditional Paris ham and a choice of excellent cheeses. The perfect palate-cleanser between evenings spent indulging in the city’s starry haute cuisine.

(Photo © Le Bon, Le Beurre & Le Truand)

750 metres away: Maison Trudon

The world’s oldest candle maker sells refined scented treasures from a corner in Galeries Lafayette Champs-Elysées. To celebrate Le Bristol’s centenary, it has created Honoré, a mellow accord of vetiver and white musk spiked with fiery heart notes of cedar and wheat, available in the hotel boutique.