Le Royal Monceau (Paris, France)

After 2 years of undergoing important renovation work, one of the most prestigious Parisian Hotel; Le Royal Monceau – (which is owned by the Raffles group), which had closed down in June 2008, opened its doors, October 18th; the new Royal Monceau is by now the most trendy hotel in Paris.

"Impelled by Qatari Diar and Alexandre Allard the creative director, designer Philippe Starck completely transformed the place during two years, and re-invented its spirit so as to make Le Royal Monceau – Raffles Paris the first hotel in a new generation of Parisian palaces." quote from www.trendland.net


We wanted to have a drink after dinner; and of course we went to the bar that is on everyone's mouth, which is the 'Long Bar', designed by Philippe Starck.

The Royal Monceau is Starck’s attempt to say what “real French modernity should look like… artistic, delicate, open, poetic” according to www.trendland.net. I would have to agree. I was very surprised & stunned that the lobby & bar were not the usual Strack bizarreness but rather the place had loads of coolness from unique features like curtains hanging from the ceiling (hard to explain), stylishness from blending vintage & Scandinavian modeled furniture with modern decorations & chicness from using the neutral colours of browns & beiges with bold colours of ruby reds & colt blues.

The place was empty because we were there after midnight (but we were at the Long Bar for aperitif the next evening before our dinner which was during a weekday & around 19:30. The place was packed packed packed with very trendy, chic & stylish people. We were lucky to even get a table).


The end of the Long Bar (you can see some of the marble long bar in the photo) is the giant shelf where the bartenders store the alcohol and where they prepare the cocktails.


We ended our evening by ordering wine by the glass (13 euros) since we already had a bottle of wine for our dinner.

The service at the bar was very friendly and attentive. The Long Bar is now our favourite bar in town for an aperitif or after dinner drinks. The place is simply stunning!

37 Avenue Hoche
75008 Paris
Tel.: 01 42 99 88 00