For my boyfriend’s 30^th birthday I wanted to do something special and magical. As he had never visited Paris I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to visit the ‘Romantic‘ City of Lights. After hearing my friend Michel‘s raving stories of the InterContinental Paris Le Grand before it´s grand renovation I figured it was time to test if the hotel still was this good after the big renovation.

As the weather on our day of arrival was rather good for February standards, dry and not cold. We walked about half an hour from the Gare du Nord where our Thalys arrived along Avenue de La Fayette to the InterContinental, giving Sam already a first impression of the sights and smells of Paris. The hotel is located right next to the famous Opera Garnier and the enormous Galeries de la Fayette department store.

The welcome in the hotel was very warm and welcoming and thanks to there being no queue we had an immediate check-in. From the reception we could have a look at the beautiful La Verrière, the inside glass dome covered bar.

We received a king room on the fifth floor, the top floor of the hotel. The room had a rather big floor plan with especially a very spacious bathroom.

The entrance corridor lead to the bedroom on the left hand side and the bathroom on the right hand side. Two big closets where located in the corridor, providing ample space to put your belogings.

The bedroom had a big and comfortable king bed in the middle. There where bedside tables with lamps on both side. For a recently renovated room the lack of easily reachable plugs and usb sockets next to the bed was a bit of a missed opportunity. We had to move the bed side tables away to be able to reach a power plug near the floor, not the best design.

The rest of the room was nicely decorated with a relaxing chair and poof in one corner, the minibar with the TV on top in the middle and a spacious desk with the coffee making facilities in the other corner.

As I am an Ambassador member I received a welcome gift of some cookies, a bottle of water and some apples. For my boyfriend’s birthday the hotel provided a card and a rather large cake, much better than last year’s disaster in InterContinental London O2.

The bathroom looked lovely and spacious but the space was unfortunately not optimally used. There was a bath tub in the corner, yet it was too small to comfortably take a bath, considering the size of the space they could have easily fit in a larger and more spacious tub here. 

The toilet and the shower where in two separate annexes at the side of the main room. The shower also looked very nice. But for a recently renovated room it was unfortunate that they diced to not put in a rainshower head but a simple side shower head. It also was mounted rather low, coming at around the height of my neck, not making for the most comfortable showering experience.

The products where provided in big dispenser bottles, yet there wasn’t really an adequate dedicated space in the shower to put them. You also had to move the bottles between the bath and the shower, why not put them in both places? At least the products smelled very nice.

To spoil my boyfriend I of course booked a club room to gain access to the wonderful club lounge. It is located on the first floor, just off the elevator lobby. There are no toilets inside the lounge, you have to use the public toilets located at the opposite side of the elevators.

The lounge is in an L shape, overlooking the interior courtyard with the glass dome. The main room upon entering has a desk for the lounge attendant, ready to help you with all your questions. After that there is a diverse array of seating.

To the left there are several alcoves with various drinks stations.

At the end you have the other room which contains the dining area aswell as the food buffet.

In the morning a small breakfast buffet is on offer, with a possibility to offer eggs on order.

The afternoon tea spread consists of some sandwiches and a lot of sweet tarts and cakes.

The evening spread is the same as the afternoon tea spread with some other items added along to it like warm soup, oysters and sushi.

Champagne and alcoholic drinks are available all day long, which you don’t often see in club lounges anymore.   

The service in the lounge was excellent and of a very high standard.

On the second night of my stay I wanted to take a shower in the evening to freshen up but there was no hot water, after a short call to the reception to notify them of the issue they told me they had to switch off the hot water temporarily as there was a leak in the hotel. Fair enough, such things can always occur. The next morning the hot water was flowing again so they quickly fixed it. To make up for the inconvenience they proactively brought some fruit juices and chocolate to the room, which I tought was a very nice gesture.

The last night of the stay I unfortunately wasn’t feeling well, probably due to something I ate. So instead of eating out at a restaurant we ordered room service. This was swiftly and hot delivered to our room. The meal tasted fresh and delicious.

All in all we had an excellent stay at InterContinental Paris le Grand. The service and politeness was just perfect. Every staff member knew exactly what they had to do and what they where doing. They didn’t hesitate to go the extra mile.  The hotel can pride itself in having such an experienced and motivated work force.

The hospitality and service here is the polar opposite of what you would stereotypically expect in Paris and France. The hotel exceeded my expectations and I can only highly recommend staying there.