Paris' Hôtel Balzac offers old-world French glamour, newly renovated suites, a Japanese-inspired spa – and a Champs-Élysées location with access to the city's best neighbourhoods
busy fashion week
So the idea of staying near the Champs-Élysées – the touristy and often maligned shopping boulevard that runs from Place de la Concorde all the way to the Arc de Triomphe – had never crossed my mind.
The façade of Hôtel Balzac, which is located on a side street off the Champs-Élysées. Photo: Matthieu Salvaing
Advertisement
On my recent visit to the City of Lights for the autumn/winter 2025 haute couture shows, however, I decided to base myself there for a couple of days before the rest of the fashion crowd touched down. My choice of accommodation was Hôtel Balzac, located just off the busy Champs-Élysées.
The hotel, which reopened last year after a lengthy renovation and redesign by French design firm Festen Architecture, is housed in a historic building where 19th-century writer Honoré de Balzac lived, and is located on Rue Balzac, also named after the scribe.
At Hôtel Balzac, Spa Ikoi will transport you to Japan. Photo: Handout
The refurbishment added a Japanese-inspired subterranean sanctuary, Spa Ikoi, which offers treatments ranging from shiatsu massage to signature facials such as Kobido and Hoshin. Tatami mats and shoji-style sliding doors make you feel like you're escaping Paris for the far eastern nation.
A member of Relais & Châteaux, the property is discreet and quiet. Tucked away from the happening Champs-Élysées, it makes for a great spot to unwind after a long day checking out the area's boutiques and attractions.
A bedroom at Hôtel Balzac that marries comfort and elegance. Photo: Handout
Hôtel Balzac's 58 rooms and suites – some of them offering views of the Eiffel Tower – are elegant and well-appointed, their decor inspired by 1930s French design. Unlike hotels that often lose their souls after renovations by relying on unnecessary technology and bells and whistles that often add nothing, Hôtel Balzac has retained its old-world charm while still catering to the needs of modern-day luxury travellers.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Paris' Hôtel Balzac offers old-world French glamour, newly renovated suites, a Japanese-inspired spa – and a Champs-Élysées location with access to the city's best neighbourhoods
As a long-time and frequent visitor to Paris, I've become a creature of habit. The first arrondissement, near the Palais Royal and Louvre Museum, is where I always stay. The area is ideal for exploring nearby neighbourhoods, such as the Marais and the Left Bank across the river. It also makes for a perfect base during busy fashion week So the idea of staying near the Champs-Élysées – the touristy and often maligned shopping boulevard that runs from Place de la Concorde all the way to the Arc de Triomphe – had never crossed my mind. The façade of Hôtel Balzac, which is located on a side street off the Champs-Élysées. Photo: Matthieu Salvaing Advertisement On my recent visit to the City of Lights for the autumn/winter 2025 haute couture shows, however, I decided to base myself there for a couple of days before the rest of the fashion crowd touched down. My choice of accommodation was Hôtel Balzac, located just off the busy Champs-Élysées. The hotel, which reopened last year after a lengthy renovation and redesign by French design firm Festen Architecture, is housed in a historic building where 19th-century writer Honoré de Balzac lived, and is located on Rue Balzac, also named after the scribe. At Hôtel Balzac, Spa Ikoi will transport you to Japan. Photo: Handout The refurbishment added a Japanese-inspired subterranean sanctuary, Spa Ikoi, which offers treatments ranging from shiatsu massage to signature facials such as Kobido and Hoshin. Tatami mats and shoji-style sliding doors make you feel like you're escaping Paris for the far eastern nation. A member of Relais & Châteaux, the property is discreet and quiet. Tucked away from the happening Champs-Élysées, it makes for a great spot to unwind after a long day checking out the area's boutiques and attractions. A bedroom at Hôtel Balzac that marries comfort and elegance. Photo: Handout Hôtel Balzac's 58 rooms and suites – some of them offering views of the Eiffel Tower – are elegant and well-appointed, their decor inspired by 1930s French design. Unlike hotels that often lose their souls after renovations by relying on unnecessary technology and bells and whistles that often add nothing, Hôtel Balzac has retained its old-world charm while still catering to the needs of modern-day luxury travellers.
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Style Edit: Henry Jacques' HJ Voyage travel cases are an elegant way to carry your favourite perfumes this season, including the house's new range of summer scents
In summertime, thoughts naturally turn to travel. For those who don't want to be parted from their favourite Henry Jacques perfumes while on holiday, the house has its HJ Voyage line of cases, designed specifically for carrying and protecting its signature flacons and bottles. Henry Jacques HJ Voyage cases are all crafted with exceptional materials. Photo: Handout Henry Jacques perfumes come in a variety of sizes, but the 15ml and 75ml offerings give the traveller the option of mixing and matching the perfect 'perfume wardrobe', whether the destination is a beach resort, the bucolic countryside or an elegant boulevard. The 15ml flacons contain Les Essences – opulent, highly concentrated fragrances and pure oils designed for careful dabbing that are the very soul of Henry Jacques' craft. The 75ml bottles are the vessels for Les Brumes – lighter versions of the maison's scents, created for spraying and everyday use. Advertisement The HJ Voyage collection offers cases that safely house either Les Essences or Les Brumes perfumes, either individually or in sets of three. Cases are available in rare leather – from electric-blue saltwater crocodile leather and black eel skin, to Italian black and white calf leather – or in intricately woven jacquard fabric, beautifully lined with soft goat suede. Zips are fashioned in palladium and gold, and in their details and craftsmanship, the cases are reflective of the high artisanal standards with which Henry Jacques is customarily associated. There's a Henry Jacques scent to match every occasion. Photo: Handout And what could be more fitting for the HJ Voyage collection than the maison's travel-ready scents of the season? For those seeking the sophistication and complexity offered by chypre floral fragrances, Henry Jacques has Femme de HJ, with an opening note of fresh iris that slowly blossoms into a luscious bouquet of rose, jasmine and carnation, all of which is underpinned by a base of patchouli and oakmoss – the balanced combination of bright, floral and earthy qualities that typify chypre perfumes. Femme de HJ is a sophisticated and complex travel-ready scent that's perfect for summer. Photo: Handout Musk Oil White, meanwhile, announces its exotic presence with an opening of ylang-ylang and freesia, before unfolding an alluring heart of jasmine and rose damascena over a warm base of white musk and bourbon vanilla. The result is a perfume both sensual and harmonious.
South China Morning Post
12-07-2025
- South China Morning Post
Bordeaux is embracing organic for a different class of red
Bordeaux and bio – the French term for 'organic' – are not words that are often seen in the same sentence. The world-renowned wines from the 7,000 or so chateaux that define this part of southwest France have an image of quality that is based on tradition rather than trends. So it is not surprising to learn that even today, official figures from the Bordeaux Wine Council reveal that only about 25 per cent of Bordeaux wines come from vineyards that are certified organic. Nevertheless, as I discovered on a series of recent road trips, behind the conservative, old-fashioned image, tremors of radical change are rippling through France's most famous vineyards. Innovative vignerons are crossing once-sacred boundaries, not just responding to consumer demand for organic wines , but embracing cutting-edge biodynamic production techniques and the unpredictable zero-sulphites world of natural wines. And it is no longer rare to see terracotta amphorae and ceramic jars standing alongside conventional oak casks. At Château La Grande Clotte, owners Julie and Mathieu Mercier do most of the work themselves, with Julie looking after the vines. Photo: Château La Grande Clotte The Bordeaux vineyards are spread over an area of 110,000 hectares, and to explore these new trends, my designated driver and I travelled through the lavish chateaux of the Médoc, Sauternes and Saint-Émilion, visited wineries in Blaye and Entre-Deux-Mers, and even ventured to little-known vineyards in remote corners of the Bordelais (a term used to describe the wine-growing region around the city of Bordeaux). In addition to families who have been making wine here for centuries, we met dynamic female vigneronnes and enthusiastic newcomers who had abandoned business careers to become winemakers. And for the wine-loving traveller, tourism here has moved on from formal cellar tastings to envelop everything from wellness vinotherapy to vineyard picnics and escape games. Heading north from the city of Bordeaux and along the left bank of the Gironde estuary, we soon reach the prestigious Médoc vineyards, which produce wines that you find in gourmet restaurants around the world: Margaux , Saint-Julien, Pauillac. Each chateau seems more opulent and sumptuous than the last, surrounded by perfectly manicured vineyards – so the anarchic vines of elegant 18th century Château Anthonic, broken up into small plots by hedges, ditches, woods and fruit trees, could not look more out of place.
