C’est une bonne idée! Rakishly don a beret and steal a kiss like those heyday couples caught in Robert Doisneau’s famous vintage photos of lovers in Paris. For Francophiles, a honeymoon in France is the next logical step after a courtship spent practicing your French. You’ll sit in outdoor cafés, Champagne flutes aloft, snuggle in hidden bistros, visit wineries and linger all day over multi-course Michelin-starred lunches. You can visit castles, peruse museums, romp through lavender fields, cycle backroads or steer a car along the Côte d’Azur’s curvy roads in a speedy roadster. Fresh baked baguettes and photos in front of the Eiffel Tower? That goes without saying.
But where to stay? Here are some hotspots we know and love.
Paris
In the City of Lights, swoon over gilded monuments and characteristic mansard rooftops, walk along the River Seine and gorge on crepes. Discover Shangri-La Paris, a palace hotel set in the former residence of Napoleon’s royal grand-nephew, Prince Roland. Secreted in a residential part of the 16th arrondissement near the Trocadéro on the Right Bank, the quixotic hotel boasts Shang Palace, France’s only Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant, and performs a nightly sabering ceremony in the lavishly furnished lounges where Prince Roland once gathered with fellow members of the intelligentsia. More than half the guest rooms frame riveting Eiffel Tower views. shangri-la.com/paris/shangrila/
Room to Book: Choose La Suite Gustave Eiffel for its private wrap-around terrace.
Versailles
Toast life’s next phase with Marie Antoinette-style fervor at Hôtel Les Lumières, a Relais & Chateaux property. Planted just across the street from eye-popping Versailles palace and its grounds, this clever boutique hotel allows for a more relaxed way to visit the renowned attraction, and to get to know the town. Enveloped amongst several refurbished centuries-old homes, glamorous Hôtel Les Lumières takes gravitas from the past but speaks to modern day honeymoon nobility with contemporary flourishes. Enjoy suites named for key Enlightenment players, a restaurant built as in interpretation of the gleaming Hall of Mirrors, a stellar library and guest experiences as diverse as pastry workshops, yoga and bespoke classic car tours. 2lcollection.com/les-lumieres.html
Room to Book: Reign like queen and kings in The Gramont Suite, enlivened by frescoes and accented with original wooden ceiling beams.
Côte d’Azur
On the fabled Côte d’Azur between Nice and Monaco, the medieval town of Èze stands out for its views, cobbled alleyways and romantic nooks. Its crème de la crème hideaway, historic Château Eza, hovers some 1,300 feet-above the sea, perched on a cliff. It offers a mere (and exclusive ) 14 cosseting rooms, a Michelin-starred restaurant and the best Champagne cocktail in France. Honeymooners will be greeted with a heart-shaped cake to celebrate their love. chateaueza.com
Room to Book: The Presidential Suite, n’est-ce pas. Just refurbished, it pampers with an expansive terrace and private plunge pool.
Loire Valley
In a town as characteristically French fairytale as Belle’s village in Beauty and the Beast, magical Hotel Château du Grand-Lucé welcomes just marrieds to an extraordinary dreamscape. Built in 1760, the hotel, as the castle home of an exalted baron and advisor to Louis XV, hosted the likes of Mozart and Voltaire. Make your own memories amongst its scores of embellished common areas and 19 perfect suites — each bejeweled, hung, swathed and ornamented with unmatched sumptuosity. Picnic amongst 80 acres of French-manicured gardens and grounds, linger by the lake, splash in the circular pool and dine at two intimate, farm-to-table restaurants. chateaugrandluce.com
Room to Book: The Baron’s Suite, possibly Europe’s most sublime accommodation. (Why? It’s your honeymoon.)
Champagne Region
Near the idyllic wine haven of Reims, biking distance from Hautvillers, the village where Dom Perignon is buried, Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa caps a hilltop overlooking miles of vineyards. With scores of panoramic windows that embrace the surrounding terrain, this contemporary riff on a Champagne hideaway will please design and art aficionados (think plates in its Michelin-starred restaurant with excerpts from Napoleon’s love letters), Champagne lovers (the hotel has its own label but lies sipping distance from an array of top wine houses as well) and wellness advocates (its Clarins spa and pool complex are top notch), too. royalchampagne.com
Room to Book: Bunk in the Josephine Suite for its peerless appeal, spaciousness and views of Marne Valley.
