A Marquis's Mansion Becomes Paris's Most Enviable Hotel
Photo by Adrien Ozouf / courtesy of Hôtel de Sers.
PARIS — If you want a world-class address, you buy a home on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, via Montenapoleone in Milan, or the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
That was the desire of French military captain Henri-Léopold Charles de Sers who built his Paris mansion in in the eighth arrondissement in 1880. Better known as the Marquis de Sers, he commissioned the Belle Époque starchitect Jules Pellechet to construct an enviable home in one of the city’s most fashionable neighborhoods. The Marquis couldn’t have guessed that within a decade the Eiffel Tower would rise and, with it, the property’s enduring curb appeal.
By the 1930s, the private residence had become the public Hôtel de Sers and was fully and carefully renovated earlier last year. With Art Deco accents across 43 rooms and nine suites, some with unobstructed views of the Iron Lady herself. Owner Agathe Jousse told me, “When we renovated, our vision was to imagine what a modern-day Marquis would create in his home. What makes it especially unique is the architecture of a private residence: The hotel is full of light, with floor-to-ceiling windows in many rooms and bathrooms and terraces in about half of our rooms.”
I had the great fortune to stay in the Eiffel Suite over Bastille Day last summer. The 645-square-foot space is luxurious from the ground up. From the living room’s herringbone oak floors to the high-pile bedroom carpeting to the bathroom’s cool marble, each element radiated intention and excellence. Outside on the sprawling terrace, red, white, and blue fireworks bloomed over the Eiffel Tower while the golden balloon from the 2024 Olympics rose in the evening sky. The entire Parisian skyline glowed in a dreamlike fantasy of what you think Paris should always be.
The elegant hotel also provides the necessities a modern, practical traveler demands. For a building dating back to the 19th century, Hôtel de Sers offers a surprising number of contemporary amenities including American-style air conditioning, a full fitness center, and spa with sauna. Restaurant de Sers (and its attendant in-room dining) recently welcomed a new executive chef, Stefano Stafie from Umbria, Italy. He is charged with reinvigorating the hotel’s already excellent continental offerings with an infusion of Mediterranean style.
The Hôtel’s idyllic location in the eighth arrondissement makes it an easy five-minute walk to the Champs-Élysées or ten-minute walk to the banks of the Seine. It’s a similarly quick stroll to La Galerie Dior (where Christian got his start); Le Grand Café in the Grand Palais, arguably one of Paris’ hottest restaurants at the moment; and Ladurée Champs-Élysées — an outpost of the original patisserie — here with an outdoor terrace, winter garden, dessert bar, and pastry workshop.
The Marquis de Sers built this Parisian townhome to stake his claim in a city on the rise. Nearly 150 years later, his vision has endured and evolved, enabling travelers from all over the world to indulge in a bit of Belle Époque Paris with all of the contemporary comforts of home.