The best hotels in Montmartre, Paris
An expert guide to the best hotels in Montmartre, including the top places to stay for bourgeois-home charm, panoramic views of the city, glitzy interiors, swimming pools and stylish restaurants, in locations including Montmartre village, rue des Abbesses and near the Sacré-Cœur, The Moulin Rouge and Pigalle.
This 19th-century mansion is hidden from the outside world, down an enchanting old-world alley in the fabled artist quartier of Montmartre. Without a doubt, the big draws are the lush walled-garden with ample space for lounging around beneath trees, and the neighbouring pétanque court. The 1871 building was previously home to members of the Hermès and Rothschild families, and the house has lost none of its bourgeois-home charm. Inside, interiors are intimate, clandestine and deliciously private. Ground-floor lounges exude an exclusive gentlemen’s club ambiance with dim lighting, heavy red-velvet drapes and opulent drawing-room furnishings. This is that secret pied à terre in Paris you always fantasised about.
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Hôtel Regyn's Montmartre is in a great location if you want to leap straight out of bed and into the heart of the action. From the cottages, artists' studios and steep staircases meandering up the hill to the excellent food shops and lively bars of rue des Abbesses, there is something to appease everyone. Interiors are unpretentious and very Parisian behind the white stucco façade. The Montmartre-themed murals of the vineyard and place des Abbesses in the reception and living room are rather kitsch but all part of the charm and the cheerful rooms have all been attractively refurbished with classic French toile de jouy print fabric on the walls. Privilege rooms on the fourth and fifth floors have stunning panoramic views over the city.
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Photography is the theme at Déclic Hôtel and make no mistake, this unusual boutique succeeds in the high glamour stakes. The glitzy black interior is dramatic, clever and sensual. If you yearn to play paparazzi or top model for a night, this fully immersive address is for you. There are 18 Standard double rooms but the real action happens in the nine suites, each equipped with camera such as a retro instant polaroid, an instant photo booth, a hidden paparazzi lens or a complete photo studio, and tablet to play around with your shots. The hotel can set up shoots with a professional photographer, organise props and costumes, make-up artists and so forth – and you can take your photos home. It's on a quiet side street in the lower reaches of the artist quartier of Montmartre.
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The hotel is perfectly placed for exploring Paris's most famous Montmartre village, with all its sights in close walking distance. The Sacré-Cœur is five minutes' walk away, while The Moulin Rouge and the bawdy hubbub of Boulevard de Clichy are a short stroll away. Guests may peruse cabinets displaying an impressive range of locally themed products and trinkets – including honey made from bees cultivated by local firemen. Original 1911 features, including a striking glass awning on the façade, have been carefully restored and contrasted with modern light fittings, bold colours and geometric prints. The hotel's position atop Montmartre means higher rooms offer a handsome view, with the Eiffel Tower to one side and La Défense on the other.
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Just off busy rue Lepic, in villagey Montmartre, the Relais Montmartre feels more like a home than a hotel, with a reception-cum-lounge furnished with antiques and oil paintings and a real log fire in winter. There's also a small courtyard patio with cheerful yellow tables and chairs. Place du Tertre and Sacré-Coeur are up the hill, the sleaze shops and music venues of Pigalle down below and plenty of interesting bars, restaurants and great food shops around the corner. Spotlessly maintained rooms are pretty and floral, with colourfully painted exposed beams — fuchsia, green, purple, blue — botanical prints on the walls, and amenities like the minibar neatly hidden away. Service is friendly and helpful with the personalised attention of a small hotel.
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The discrete classical golden stone façade hardly prepares you for the interior as you walk into a Moorish-style tiled salon, recuperated from a mansion in Brussels. It sets the scene, allied with the cosiness of plush Napoleon III crimson velvet chairs, playing on the house's brief period as a maison-close in 1905 frequented by socialites and intellectuals of the day. The sequence continues in the wood-panelled bar-library, with books and backgammon, a glass-roofed conservatory with infinity mirrors and even a tiny planted courtyard. Service is personal and there’s a gorgeous, dimly lit 10-metre swimming pool and hammam. Rooms are each named after a courtesan while the suites commemorate famous demi-mondaines, who often went grandly up in the world.
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Hôtel Arvor Saint Georges gets the home-from-home atmosphere just right, with its mixture of stylish and casual décor. There's a relaxed bar-salon where you can browse art books or play table football. Vases of fresh flowers and curvy Bookworm shelves of paperbacks line the corridors and are available to borrow. Bedrooms are airy and pared back: think bright white with one contrasting wall, and personalised with eclectic lights, vintage chests of drawers or dressing tables found at the flea market. The hotel is located on a quiet crescent just off pretty place Saint-Georges in today's burgeoning SoPi (South Pigalle). Montmartre is up the hill, Palais Garnier opera house down below and the great food shops of rue des Martyrs, pretty much around the corner.
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Old-timers to Paris might remember Les Matins as the spot in South Pigalle where Afro-American Leroy Haynes cooked up great jazz and soul food from America’s deep south in the 1960s. Food and shopping street rue des Martyrs is around the corner, and the touristy hilltop district of Montmartre is 10 minutes’ walk north. Les Matins de Paris used to be a brothel in the 19th century, but bears no hint of its salubrious past today except for an engaging collection of black and white photographs evoking key streets and landmarks in this edgy part of Paris. Rooms are carpeted, with bold and bright fabrics lending a jazzy ambiance to an otherwise crisp, contemporary décor. Those on the top floor enjoy an utterly charming and quintessentially Parisian chimney pot and rooftop view.
