Saint James Paris

The Hotel

Saint James Paris occupies the building constructed 1890-1892 as the Fondation Thiers, a residential institute commissioned by Madame Adolphe Thiers to house the most promising young French scholars in arts and sciences for the early years of their careers. The architect was Henri Parent, who had earlier designed the Musée Jacquemart-André on Boulevard Haussmann (1869-1875) and contributed to the original Hôtel de Crillon at Place de la Concorde. The building takes the form of a French Second Empire neoclassical hôtel particulier — limestone façades, mansard roof, central pediment — set behind a wrought-iron forecourt at place du Chancelier Adenauer in the 16th arrondissement, between the Étoile and the Bois de Boulogne. The Fondation Thiers operated as scholarly residence for nearly a century before declining; the building was acquired by the Bertrand family (Bertrand Restaurants & Hôtels) in stages from 2008 and converted to a hotel.

The conversion was carried out in two phases. The library, lobby, and ground-floor public rooms were redesigned by Bambi Sloan in 2009 in a vivid baroque-meets-pop register — heavy use of trompe-l'œil, tartans, gilt, and a hot-air-balloon motif celebrating the chateau's earliest 19th-century association with French aviation pioneers. The 50 guest rooms were reimagined by Parisian designer Laura Gonzalez in a 2018-2020 phased renovation, in a quieter palette — pastel woodwork, antique-finish mirrors, custom-designed furniture in a French eclectic register. The garden — one full hectare, the largest private hotel garden inside Paris — was restored under the supervision of Xavier de Chirac, with original-period rose plantings and a working potager that supplies the kitchen.

The 50 rooms are split between the original chateau (where the standard room sizes are larger, 32-50 sqm, with original mouldings preserved) and a sympathetic modern annex within the garden walls (where rooms are smaller but contemporary in finish). Suites are concentrated in the chateau — the Suite Présidentielle is the top-floor 130-sqm unit with a private terrace facing the inner garden; the Suite Library overlooks the chateau's restored 19th-century reading room. The hotel maintains the Bibliothèque — the original Fondation Thiers library, with 9,000 books still on the shelves — accessible to guests as the chateau's principal sitting room, with a daily complimentary open-bar concept (cocktails, espresso, light snacks) for in-house guests.

Bellefeuille — the chateau restaurant — has held one Michelin star since 2022 under chef Julien Dumas, who came directly from the historic Lucas Carton on the Place de la Madeleine. The cooking is contemporary French with a vegetable-and-garden focus that uses produce from the chateau's own potager. The dining room opens onto the garden in summer; in winter the Library bar handles aperitif service. The Spa Guerlain on the lower-ground floor was the first Guerlain spa to open inside any Paris hotel and remains the brand's flagship in the city — a 700-square-metre programme with a 12-metre indoor pool, hammam, and four treatment rooms. The position is residential 16th — three minutes' walk to the Étoile, eight minutes' to the Trocadéro, twelve to the Eiffel Tower, fifteen to the Bois de Boulogne. Saint James is not the address that would describe itself as central; it is the address whose value is in not being central.

Best Occasion Fit

Practical Information

Also Great in Paris