Shangri-La Paris

Few Paris hotels can claim a provenance like this one: the building rose in 1896 as the private residence of Prince Roland Bonaparte, grand-nephew of Napoleon, and its restored salons still carry imperial ciphers, coffered ceilings and a magnificent staircase of honour. Shangri-La's conversion kept the Second Empire bones intact while threading in the group's East-meets-West sensibility, from celadon accents in the rooms to Cantonese fine dining downstairs.

The hotel's defining asset is geography. Set on the Chaillot hill across the Seine from the Champ de Mars, a large share of rooms and suites look straight at the Eiffel Tower, close enough that the evening light show fills the window. Terrace suites turn that view into one of the most romantic settings in the capital.

Shang Palace, the hotel's Cantonese restaurant, has held a Michelin star and remains a rarity of its kind in Europe, while La Bauhinia serves French and Southeast Asian menus beneath a glass cupola. A 15-metre pool bathed in natural light rounds out a hotel that trades the buzz of the Golden Triangle for residential calm and that singular view.