Ritz Paris

The Ritz is the house you come to when you want Paris to be exactly what you remember. The courtyard is still the first moment, a deep quiet before the city. The bar at the back still pours a martini the old way.

Ask for a suite on the Place Vendôme side. Take breakfast in the garden before the room fills. The pool below is worth an early hour, a rare thing to have mostly to yourself in the middle of the first arrondissement.

Keep an evening free for nothing at all — a drink at the Hemingway, a walk back through the gardens of the Palais Royal, a late arrival to one's room with the lamps already on.