Paris tips

Is there anything better than jetting off to Paris, Nice, or Milan? Yes, yes there is. Jetting off to Paris, Nice, or Milan in business class. For a limited time (and just in time for gift-giving season, cough cough), French airline La Compagnie is offering airfares as low as $2,000 round-trip for its all-business flights to those three cities in France and Italy.

As our boat glided along the Seine, the Eiffel Tower came into view, glittering against a piercing blue September sky. The captain popped a bottle of Champagne and handed me a generous pour. I leaned back against the leather seat, letting my skin drink in the sunshine before taking a sip and letting the bubbles fizz and flit across my tongue. The captain waved me toward the front of the boat, gesturing for me to pose for a photo. I raised my glass and grinned, thinking there couldn’t be a more fitting first snapshot for an American food writer visiting Paris to retrace Julia Child’s footsteps.

The opening of a new hotel, a new gallery and two compelling exhibitions in two of my favourite galleries made a pre-Christmas Eurostar dash to Paris irresistible. The draw of the 91-room Bloom House Hotel & Spa, which opened in September (new beds, new everything equals no bedbugs!), is that you can get off the Eurostar at Gare du Nord after a stress-free journey and be having lunch in their courtyard garden oasis 10 minutes later. A green-tiled pond is the focal point, a pergola strung with festoon lighting overhead – perfect for evening cocktails.

There are the typical Black Friday travel deals and discounts and then there is a showstopping new offer from Air Tahiti Nui, the flagship carrier of French Polynesia. In honor of 25 years of service, Air Tahiti Nu has developed a new multi-flight pass, for $1,525, which includes round-trip tickets to four international destinations to be used over the course of a year.

Eurostar could face fresh rivalry on its cross-Channel train route.

It just got cheaper to visit the City of Lights by train this summer. In celebration of the upcoming 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games in Paris, Eurostar announced an increase of train service— between London and Paris — to accommodate the spectators, participants, and travelers, at a discounted price.

Have you heard the news? Paris is positively teeming with bedbugs. Yep, this autumn, the blood-sucking insects have been crawling all over the French capital, taking a bite out of citizens and travelers alike. In addition to being spotted on beds in hotels and private residences—precisely where you would expect the little critters to be hanging out—there have been bedbug sightings on buses & trains, in airports and even at movie theaters. (Hey, I know Barbenheimer was a big deal, but this is ridiculous.)    How did we find out about this infestation? It's 2023, how else? Videos of supposed bedbug sightings were shared via wobbly social media posts, gaining traction with shocked viewers and amateur exterminators alike. Predictably, the bedbug content set the algorithm alight, going viral and spawning memes and many a reaction video from influencers who wanted to talk about bedbugs, you know, "because a lot of you are asking".  Then, the story swept into traditional media. What followed was a slew of news stories about the "invasion", the panic surrounding it and how it all comes a mere 10 months before millions of people from all over the world are set to descend on the City of Light for the Summer Olympics. People wondered why this was happening now. Was it because of the Rugby World Cup? Paris Fashion Week? Or were bedbugs simply just getting out there and traveling again post-Covid? The fervor reached such a level that, back in early October, it was reported by Reuters that Emmanuel Gregoire, Paris's deputy mayor, said in a letter to Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne that "The state urgently needs to put an action plan in place against this scourge as France is preparing to welcome the Olympic and Paralympic games in 2024,". 

With its red window awnings as iconic as red-bottomed Louboutins, the Plaza Athénée has long stood as a beacon of French splendor from its perch along the Avenue de Montaigne in Paris. Since it first opened its doors in 1913, its sumptuous accommodations, white-gloved hospitality, and emphasis on culinary excellence have become so celebrated and beloved by both tourists and locals alike that the Plaza—officially the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, Dorchester Collection—is now more than a Parisian landmark: It’s a travel destination in itself.

I picked Mimi up from school on a Friday afternoon in June. In the pitch-dark dortoir, or nap room, I located my four-year-old among the tiny bodies curled up on miniature bunk beds. She opened her eyes and smiled. It was time for our adventure.

The No. 1 visited city in the world will be adding millions more travelers to its regular intake next summer during the Olympic Games from July 26 to August 11. If you're planning on going to Paris during this time, here's what to know about hotel prices, finding tickets to events and bed bug predictions.

There’s no shortage of chic hotels in Paris. But very few offer the comfort and intimacy of a luxurious Parisian apartment coupled with the five-star service of a top hotel. That is, except for the Hotel San Régis, the iconic 100-year-old gem in the tony eighth arrondissement that’s hosted the likes of Richard Avedon, Lauren Bacall, Gene Kelly, Louis Malle, Jacqueline Bisset, Romy Schneider and more.

Fame doesn't happen overnight, even less so when it has to be built from the ground up. When it comes to iconic landmarks across the world, it takes even longer. 

I'm an American who's been living in Paris since 2022, and I recently took a 3 1/2-hour, high-speed train from Paris to Amsterdam. 

Paris+ par Art Basel's second edition concluded, highlighting the city's cultural vitality and its growing stature in the global art market. With 154 premier galleries, including 61 in France, the event showcased France's thriving art scene. It featured a diverse public program in collaboration with renowned cultural institutions across six Parisian locations. This edition welcomed 15 new galleries from Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Held at the Grand Palais Éphémère from October 20 to 22, 2023, the fair drew 38,000 attendees. The next edition will take place at Art Basel’s permanent venue: the iconic (renovated) Grand Palais from October 18 to 20, 2024.

With the start of the school holidays and the final matches of the Rugby World Cup, thousands of people are planning a trip to France in the next few days. 

During my first night at Le Royal Monceau - Raffles Paris in June, I noticed something was amiss. The large chair in the corner had been slightly repositioned, the curtains were drawn, and the bed looked tidier than I left it earlier that day.

I grew up in Paris, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.

Luxury hotel lovers who carry select Chase cards, including the Chase Sapphire Reserve, have a new reason to celebrate this season — well, every season — as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts now has 118 properties available to book through Chase's Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection.

On a steamy summer Monday in Paris’s 11th Arrondissement, the chef Rose Chalalai Singh, 43, is unloading a suitcase of cooking equipment at her new private dining space, Rose Kitchen. The kitchen is still in its final stages of refurbishment but, says Singh, “I can cook anywhere as long as there’s water and gas.”

France is on high security alert with top Paris tourist attractions evacuated over the weekend due to fears of a potential attack.

Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d write: bedbugs have taken over the city of Paris, and we are now faced with the prospect that the outbreak could travel overseas. The infestation began just before Paris Fashion Week (yes, these bugs have good taste), when reports broke of increased sightings of the insects in homes, cinemas, trains and even hospitals. Now, questions are being asked about the safety of traveling to and from Paris; what we can do to prevent the spread, and whether the critters are already settling in our mattresses. Below, we answer all your questions about travel and the bedbug spread.