La Fantaisie Paris – Hotel Review

There’s nowhere else like La Fantaisie, a boutique hotel designed with an eccentric, textured maximalism by celebrated Swedish designer Martin Brudnizki. It features a sprawling courtyard garden, rooftop bar shrouded with lavender and pear trees, complete with views of the Eiffel Tower, as well as a stand-out restaurant by the legendary chef Dominique Crenn.

Where is La Fantaisie?

You’ll find it on the Rue Cadet in Paris’s ninth arrondissement, about 15 minutes by taxi (or an easy 20 minute walk) from Gare Du Nord, where the Eurostar docks, or about 45 minutes by taxi from Charles de Gaulle Airport.

What’s near La Fantaisie?

The Rue Cadet in the ninth arrondissement is one of those idyllic Parisian streets studded with bijoux patisseries, elegant restaurants and well-appointed cheese shops. For picking up trinkets and souvenirs, the original À la Mère de Famille – Paris’s famous chocolate and candy shop – is just at the end of the road, and a 15 minute stroll will find you at the entrance to department store Galeries Lafayette. A pleasant 20 minute walk from the hotel takes you all the way to the entrance to the Louvre.

Room types

There are 73 rooms at La Fantaisie, including 10 suites. Rooms 608 and 609 on the sixth floor – the hotel’s highest for rooms – both have generous terraces and can be connected for families. But even the Comfort Rooms, facing the quiet courtyard garden, are lovely, generously sized and outfitted in shades of coral, marigold and sage green, with an array of stunning local artworks on the walls.

Restaurants and bars

An all-day café can be found at the entrance of La Fantaisie, with a fern-shrouded terrasse, perfect for people-watching. At the rear of the building, spilling out into a secret courtyard garden, is the jewel in La Fantaisie’s crown: Golden Poppy, the first Parisian restaurant from celebrated French chef Dominique Crenn. She is the first female chef to earn three Michelin Stars, at her San Francisco eatery Atelier Crenn. She has brought her distinctive, pescatarian cuisine back home. The menu is small, but perfectly formed. Don’t miss the banana pancakes doused in sticky soy caramel and caviar – a delightfully salty/sweet combination – or the tuna tartare wrapped in shiso leaf. For mains you can’t go wrong with the whole baked fish or the pollock collar, which is served with a wedge of rockmelon dusted in paprika. Pop up to the seventh floor for a nightcap at Bar Sur Le Toit, upholstered in chintzy pink and green rose print wallpaper and serving cocktails fashioned crafted by Crenn herself from quinoa vodka.

Sustainability

La Fantaisie’s devotion to sustainability is topnotch. No meat is served anywhere in the hotel; straws, mixers and other utensils in the bar are all made from bamboo; and the bathrooms and spa are kitted out exclusively with products from Holidermie, a chic vegan range by ex-Vogue Paris editor Mélanie Huynh. Instead of bottled water, a chilled carafe of filtered tap water is placed in each room and products in the minibar are all either vegan or locally sourced, including Paris Cola (instead of you- know-what) and Cosmic Dealer Ginger & Red Pepper dark chocolate bars.

Accessibility

Wheelchair accessible rooms are available. Specify your request when booking or making an inquiry. There is step-free access into the building and ground floor restaurants from the street, with a lift both down to the basement spa and up to the rooftop bar and all the rooms.

Travel for work

The free wi-fi connection is strong at La Fantaisie and there are plenty of spaces where you can work, even if they aren’t expressly designed for business. Rooms are generously sized – some even have a neatly curated desk space and international power outlets, in case you’ve forgotten to pack your adaptor. There is also the ground floor library, situated to the right of the entrance and designed to be a space for catching up on emails over a pot of coffee or tea.

Spa and gym

On the basement level, the spa has three treatment rooms and four hydrotherapy pools – mineral water, hot, cold and jacuzzi – as well as both infrared and traditional saunas and even a hammam-style steam room. All have been decorated with a botanical mosaic motif, designed by Martin Brudnizki and fashioned from some two million individual tiles. Nestled in herer too is a little, one-room gym, just the right size for a basic holiday workout.

What you need to know

Every guest room is staged with a bunch of fresh flowers, tapping into the floral theme throughout the hotel and sourced from providers in the neighbourhood.

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