Cheval Blanc Paris ranks #19 on our 2026 list of the best honeymoon hotels in the world. The case below explains why — the hotel itself, the standard it operates at, what it does specifically for couples on a milestone trip, and the alternatives we tested it against.
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The hotel itself
LVMH's masterwork. Opened 2021 in the reimagined La Samaritaine building. Seventy rooms. The Seine below. Plénitude above. Paris at its most persuasive.
"LVMH's masterwork. Seventy rooms, three-Michelin-starred Plénitude, and Seine views that make the room rate feel like a bargain. The most design-forward palace hotel in Paris, and possibly the most beautiful room in the city."
Cheval Blanc Paris opened in September 2021, occupying the upper floors of the reimagined La Samaritaine — a historic Parisian department store that LVMH closed in 2005 and spent sixteen years restoring. The hotel is the group's first urban European address and is understood within the luxury industry as a statement of what a contemporary palace hotel can be when the owner is effectively unlimited.
Why it works for a honeymoon
A city honeymoon is the riskiest format and the one that pays off the most for the right couple. The hotel needs to do what a destination resort does — give you the reason to stay in — without losing the case for the city outside. The best urban honeymoon hotels have the Michelin restaurant inside the building, the spa that erases the morning's flight, and the staff that get the table at the city's hardest restaurant for tonight.
Cheval Blanc is LVMH's quiet bet that the most decorated luxury house in the world can also build the most decorated hotels in the world. It mostly is. The properties are few — Courchevel, St-Barth, Randheli, Paris, St-Tropez — and the standard is uniformly absurd: Bonpoint amenities for the children, Guerlain for the spa, food rooms run by chefs the hotel has stolen from three Michelin-starred kitchens. For a honeymoon Cheval Blanc rewards the couple who has done luxury before and is now tired of being told what to do with it.
Peter Marino — the architect responsible for a generation of LVMH retail interiors, including Louis Vuitton flagships worldwide — designed the seventy rooms and suites with what he calls "tone-on-tone residential luxury." Each room is unique. The commission ran to approximately €360 million for the full La Samaritaine restoration project. The hotel's rooms reflect a level of design investment that is simply not possible at other price points.
The Seine views are the hotel's most discussed attribute, and they earn the discussion. Rooms facing the river look directly at the Île de la Cité, Notre-Dame Cathedral (visible in the mid-distance and now fully restored), and the Pont Neuf. At night, the view of the illuminated bridges and water is genuinely moving. The terrace suites on the upper floors amplify this to the point of excess.
Where it ranks against rivals
For a 2026 honeymoon at this level, the most direct comparisons are Mandarin Oriental, Lago di Como in Lake Como (#18), Six Senses Laamu in Maldives (#20), Passalacqua in Lake Como (#17). Cheval Blanc Paris earns the higher rank for one or two specific reasons we explain in the verdict above. The other properties are not lesser hotels — in some cases the answer for your particular trip is the runner-up, and the city-specific page below has the full local ranking.
Practical: getting in
Address: 8 Quai du Louvre, 75001 Paris, France. Honeymoon-suited categories book six to nine months ahead in shoulder season, twelve months ahead in peak. The full review at the hotel page has current rates, room categories worth paying up for, and the dining and spa programmes worth booking pre-arrival. Use our honeymoon occasion page for the broader context.