Long before it was a hotel, 19 Avenue Kléber was a stage for twentieth-century history. Built between 1905 and 1908 under architect Armand Sibien for the Hôtel Majestic, the building served as a field hospital during the First World War, hosted the Interallied Conference of 1919, became French Ministry of Defence offices in 1936, was seized as the German military high command’s Paris headquarters during the Occupation, and later housed UNESCO before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs used it as a conference centre — a run that peaked in 1973, when the Paris Peace Accords ending the Vietnam War were signed inside its walls.
The French state sold the property in the late 2000s, and the Hong Kong-based Peninsula group spent around four years and roughly 338 million euros restoring it, reopening in August 2014 as The Peninsula Paris — the group’s first hotel in Europe. Architect Richard Martinet rebuilt the Saint-Leu stone facades and restored the monumental glass-roofed entrance, while designer Henry Leung shaped interiors that pair classic Parisian elegance with Asian-inflected detail, including a leaf-shaped cascading chandelier in the lobby. The hotel earned France’s Palace distinction in 2016 and, more recently, two MICHELIN Keys.
Two hundred rooms and a rooftop with two Michelin stars
The hotel counts 200 rooms, including 34 suites; the Suite Historique preserves herringbone parquet floors, period moldings and a working fireplace. Dining spans six venues, from all-day brasserie Le Lobby to LiLi’s Cantonese menu of dim sum and seafood, but the signature address sits on the roof: L’Oiseau Blanc, an aviation-themed dining room wrapped in glass with Eiffel Tower views, holds two Michelin stars under chef David Bizet. The adjoining Kléber bar and lounge, with its restored ceiling murals, draws a cigar-friendly crowd after dark.
A spa built like a Parisian landmark of its own
Downstairs, close to 19,000 square feet of wellness space holds one of the largest spas in Paris, built around a roughly 65-foot indoor pool with a floor-to-ceiling waterfall, along with a hammam, sauna and fitness room. The hotel also runs a fleet of vintage-style cars, including a 1934 Rolls-Royce Phantom II, for guests heading to the opera, Versailles or Champagne country. Rooms start around check-in at 3pm and check-out at noon, with valet parking at 70 euros a day — a modern routine layered onto a building that has already seen a century of history pass through its doors.
Cover photo: Photo: PPR 19 — CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
