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If you find yourself staying in one of the luxury hotels in Paris this spring, consider spending an evening in a piano bar during your city break. You can always rely on a hotel piano bar to offer a sophisticated atmosphere and is the perfect end to a day of sightseeing with a cocktail and some relaxing live music tinkling in the background.

The Saint-Germain-des-Prés arrondissement is a good place to find nightlife and the Hotel Bel-Ami has an excellent piano bar with live music from 6pm. Still in the 6th arrondissement, the Bar de Lutetia at the hotel of the same name offers piano music and “lute-jazz” on other evenings. This Art Deco luxury hotel on Blvd Raspail is well known as a landmark building on the Left Bank.

The Hotel de Crillon on Place de la Concorde, one of Luxique’s top luxury hotels in Paris, has a lively bar where pianists Joel and Bernard play until 1am. It is the ideal place to hang out before or after dining in the Michelin star restaurant, Les Ambassadeurs.

For a more British influence, try the Dukes Bar at Hotel Westminster on rue de la Paix. Throughout the week there is a pianist for the cocktail hour from 6.30 to 9.30pm and at weekends there’s a jazz singer until late.

Those looking for a luxury hotel bar with cultural connections will find just what they’re looking for at the piano bar at Hotel de Banville. Named after the poet Theodore de Banville the lobby bar has superb entertainment with pianist Franck Monbaylet, guitarist Frederic Kakon and vocalist Marianne Moreau.

by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels

The Palace of Versailles is still held up as the ultimate royal palace so no doubt the planned five star hotel at Versailles will be touted as the ultimate luxury hotel in Paris.

Situated 24 km (15 miles) southwest of Paris, this vast royal chateau with over 700 magnificent rooms was the center of the extravagant French court from 1682 until 1789, when a riotous protest of the people against such indulgence brought it all to a swift end during the French Revolution.

Plans are now underway to renovate and restore a mansion within the Versailles complex and open it as a very special five star luxury hotel. The building was constructed in 1680 to house the offices, family and staff of the king’s treasurer, so no expense was spared in the original detail.

Travelers with a passion for history will get the chance to stay within this treasured monument, which will open as a luxury boutique hotel with just 23 bedrooms. If it maintains the standards of the palace, it will certainly be a magnificent temple of opulence, fit for a king.

This Hotel de l’Orangerie is planned to open in January 2012, so watch this space. Those looking for a unique travel experience will be keen to book their place in history and stroll the famous gardens of Versailles right outside their bedroom window.

by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels

Whatever will Richard Branson’s publicity team think up next? Rarely out of the news, and probably never paying for an ad in its life, the latest offering from Virgin Holidays was to organize a flash mob in Britain’s stiff and starchy Trafalgar Square.

Bowler-hatted city types quickened their pace as more than 100 raunchily clad girls, many of whom are Virgin Holiday employees, paraded in black basques and fishnet stockings with only a red feather boa to keep out the cold!

Apparently there was a noble reason for the flash-mob gathering, as Virgin Holidays in conjunction with Burlesque Baby aimed to break the world record for the world’s largest burlesque dance. Whether the hundred or so dancers did so seems unclear, although all voted it a great fun event.

For those enjoying a luxury hotel break in Paris, a similar burlesque themed flash mob descended on the Champs-Elysees just before Christmas to add to the lively festive spirit. City travelers be warned – more such events are likely!

by Gillian at Luxique Luxury Hotels

Disneyland Paris is planning a themed adventure that will give youngsters the chance to become spies for a day.

Spy Camp – aimed at 8 to 16 year-olds – is scheduled to begin in October next year. There will be induction training in the morning, with more advanced exercises in the afternoon.

Participants will learn the secrets of the world of espionage from experienced trainers, and put their spy skills to the test in a series of specially-devised challenges ranging from code-breaking and surveillance to dodging laser alarms and a combat zone. Those who successfully complete the course will be recognised at a closing ceremony.

Spy Camp at Disneyland Paris is being organised by the UK-based specialist company Spy Games Ltd, which has been running spy-themed activities and events for children and adults since 2001.

The founder, Dave Thomas, a former SAS instructor and surveillance expert, said: “We’re hugely excited to be taking the Spy Camp experience to Disneyland Paris and pulling out all the stops to create a stunning new and immersive experience for children and young people.”

by Andy Moreton

If you’re planning a visit to France’s romantic and historic capital city, browse through Luxique’s unrivalled selection of luxury hotels in Paris.

The Palace of Versailles outside Paris is to transform one of its satellite buildings into a luxury hotel.

L’hôtel du Grand Contrôle, the traditional home of the chateau’s treasurers, is to be converted into a luxury hotel with 23 bedrooms. Some will look out over The Orangerie, the palace’s elaborate greenhouse, and others will have a view of the Swiss ornamental lake. The hotel could be ready as early as the end of next year.

A concession has been granted to the Belgian company Ivy International SA to renovate and develop the building, which dates back to the 17th century but is currently in a dilapidated state. The work is expected to cost 5.5 million euros (£4.6 million/$7.3 million).

Versailles, a UNESCO World Heritage site deemed one of the crowning achievements of 18th-century French art, is one of Europe’s most popular tourist attractions.

The development paves the way for a series of French projects aimed at exploiting the economic potential of listed buildings while securing their renovation.

Another royal palace, the Chateau of Fontainbleau, south of Paris, is preparing to appeal for bids to develop its listed Heronniere barracks next year. “We have to find a purpose for these buildings to avoid them falling into ruin,” said Jean-Francois Hebert, President of Fontainbleau. “One of the ways will be to set up an upmarket hotel complex.”

by Andy Moreton/AFP

Luxique offers you a choice of accommodation at some 70 luxury hotels in Paris,including the Trianon Palace in Versailles.

The French have had to concede that London offers a better experience for tourists than Paris.

The Paris-Il-de-France Regional Tourism Committee commissioned a survey to explore ways to boost international visitors. To the surprise of many, London was placed ahead of five other European cities, including Paris, Rome and Berlin.

The report found that tourists liked London better than other cities for its taxis, restaurants and landmarks, including Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye.

The city was given an impressive score of 82 out of 100 for the welcome it offered visitors from abroad. Paris – officially the world’s most popular tourist destination in terms of number of visitors – tied in second place on 79 with Amsterdam.

So what’s so wrong with Paris? Well, public transport is considered poor, with tickets difficult to buy and the Metro looking increasingly old and dirty.

Paris hotels – which have shot up in price in the decade or so since the introduction of the euro – were also found wanting, with a total mark of 74 per cent, compared with 89 per cent for London.

One fault that was found with Londoners was that so few were able to speak a foreign language.

by Andy Moreton

Paris or London? Do both! Luxique can direct you to the best luxury hotels in Paris and London – and at the best available rates.

There might be severe belt-tightening and worried workers protesting on the streets, but Paris will still see four new five-star luxury hotels in the next fifteen months.

The first opened this week. The Royal Monceau, near the Arc de Triomphe, was previously a standard class hotel, but it’s been transformed by the celebrated French designer, Philippe Starck, into a luxury hotel in Paris, art gallery and club for what he calls ‘the smart tribe’.

Starck said that the hotel – now owned by the sovereign fund of Qatar and managed by the Singapore-based Raffles hotel group – was an attempt to recreate French modernity.

The three other luxury hotels are also being built (or rebuilt) with Asian or Middle Eastern capital. The Shangri-La, due to open in December, has been created by a Hong Kong-based group from a private mansion on the Avenue d’Iéna, with stunning views over the Seine to the Eiffel Tower.

The Mandarin Oriental (another Hong Kong funded project) will open next summer on the Rue Saint-Honoré, close to the Tuileries gardens and the Louvre, while the old Majestic Hotel on the Avenue Kléber is being converted (Qatari money again) into a 200-room ‘palace’, to be called the Peninsula-Majestic.

Paris is littered with beautiful sites, shops and expensive restaurants but is, surprisingly, under-supplied with top-of-the-range hotels. It has only seven establishments in the ‘super-luxury’ class, compared with 14 in London.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique’s travel experts have hand picked 63 luxury hotels in Paris and they’re available to book at the best possible rates.

Every year, about six million pilgrims head for the famous Catholic shrine of Lourdes in south-west France.

However, in this age of GPS (sat-navs) and sloppy spelling, a fair few are arriving at Lourde (without the ‘s’), a sleepy village about 57 miles west. The village does not have a shrine or, indeed, a hotel or a shop.

Over the years, the 94 residents of Lourde have become used to cheerfully re-directing the lost souls, but the popularity of GPS has apparently increased the number going astray. Recently, twenty bemused pilgrims turned up in one day.

Despite the confusion, the villagers are adamantly resisting calls for them to modify their name in a bid to help. And one municipal councillor came to the defence of new technology: “The GPS is not at fault, people are,” he said.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique offers a choice of a wide range of luxury hotels in Paris and many other French cities.

When visiting Paris, it’s always fun to go to a flea market to see what old bargains you can pick up to adorn your home. But for one unfortunate British couple, this signalled a chain of events about which they are still probably pretty embarrassed.

Their find was a 19th century live artillery shell, and it caused a major security alert when they tried to board the Eurostar train back to London. Explosives experts, firemen and police were scrambled to the Gare du Nord, the main Eurostar terminal in Paris, and services were held up for at least an hour.

The device dated back to France’s Third Republic, around 1885, when the whole country was full of live explosives following the Franco-Prussian War.

“Live explosives are strictly banned on all cross–Channel services, no matter how old they are,” said a French customs source. “All kinds of banned articles are picked up every day, but this is the first time someone’s tried to get through with a pre-First World War shell in their luggage.”

The unnamed couple, who thought their purchase was ‘a nice souvenir’, were cautioned about their behaviour before being allowed to return to Britain. The shell was confiscated and destroyed.

by Andy Moreton

The French capital is an explosion of colour and vibrancy at any time of the year. Book your luxury hotel in Paris through Luxique – we have an unrivalled selection of classic and modern.

Paris may be the city of love, but the authorities there have called a halt to one romantic tradition that’s gone just too far.

The trend of attaching small padlocks, with messages, to two of the capital’s bridges as a sign of undying love began about two years ago. Now, there are almost 2,000, and the French capital’s town hall has announced that they’re defacing the bridges and have to stop.

The cadenas d’amour (love padlocks) are on the Pont des Arts, which links the left bank of the Seine to the Louvre, and the Passerelle Leopold-Senghor, between the Tuilerie Gardens and the Musée d’Orsay.

A town hall source said the practice posed the question of preserving heritage – the rusty locks were becoming an eyesore on photogenic monuments.

Paris is the latest in a string of tourist sites to be struck by the love-lock craze, whose origins are unclear.

In Pécs, southern Hungary, lovers have been clamping padlocks to a fence in a street linking the mosque in the city’s main square and its mediaeval cathedral since the 1980s as a sign of commitment.
In Florence, Italy, love padlocks have been fixed to the railing at the centre of the Ponte Vecchio.

And love-struck sweethearts also favour Mount Huang, China, where it’s customary to ‘lock your soul’ together and then throw the key over the edge of the cliff into the misty valley below.

by Andy Moreton

Let Luxique unlock the secret to a truly memorable stay in the French capital. We have a selection of some of the best luxury hotels in Paris – both traditional and modern.