Go to Paris, Stay at the Hoxton, Become Chic, et Voilà
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Something shitty happened to me in 2020 that was, by 2020 standards, really not that shitty at all: I had to cancel my wedding. Yep, I was one of ~those~ brides—engaged in 2019, scheduled to wed in 2020, and blissfully unaware that a global pandemic had other plans. My husband, Josh, and I still decided to swap rings and get the state involved in our relationship, but we did it at a 12-person outdoor lunch in lieu of the 175-person dinner-and-dancing soiree we had originally planned. And to celebrate, instead of jetting off to Japan for a two-week honeymoon where I intended to test how much raw fish I could eat without getting mercury poisoning, we drove up to Maine for a few days and bundled into tons of layers so we could dine alfresco on lobster rolls in 40-degree weather. It was September 2020, those cursed pre-vax times.
The point is, during this major milestone event, we were pretty starved for romance in the traditional sense. And I’m sure lots of you feel me, even if you weren’t planning to get married during the panini. The past 20-odd months have been anything but sexy.
I don’t believe you need an excuse to plan a nice trip for yourself beyond “I gotta get out of these sweatpants and outta this house,” but surely you’ve endured some type of hardship over the past year and you deserve a little treat, like, say, a stay at the Hoxton, Paris?
Yep, that’s why I’m here: to convince you to head on over to Paris’s 2nd arrondissement and book a room at this super-glam hotel as soon as physically possible. (Full disclosure: I received a media rate plus one comped night in order to write this review.)
^ That’s the view Josh and I encountered last month as we groggily stepped out of the cab from the airport in our day-old clothes. Cut to us feeling immediately schlubby and American as hell while très chic Parisians went about their très chic daily business.
After mumbling some high school French, to which the maître d’ responded, “You are looking for ze chicken?” (yes, I realized later she said “check-in”), we were able to drop our bags and explore the place.
Said place is an 18th-century residence (which I think means that back in the day, one lucky French bloke claimed the whole space as his home) with 172 cozy bedrooms, 3 distinct restaurant/bar options, and plenty of dark corners for you to make good on Paris’s reputation as the city of…you know.
What’s funny is that the Hoxton hotel brand (it first opened in East London in 2006) started out as a spot for young creatives to gather and work. And while you can sort of pick up on that legacy—there were a lot of young, hip professional types hunched over laptops sipping coffee in various spots—it hardly feels like you’ve stumbled into a WeWork. And that’s because the entire hotel is immaculately designed.
Exhibit A: the lobby.
Sure, those couches are conducive to “putting” “together” “a deck,” but they’re also good for enjoying a cocktail with a side of your love language.
And the same sense of style extended to our room, which I should warn you was “cosy,” or what others might call…smol. (You can also opt for a “roomy” or a “biggie” depending on your needs.) Our room had very high ceilings and two gorgeous windows that looked out into a charming courtyard, so it was a perfectly lovely place to crash after a long day of traipsing around the city and showing off my terrible accent. Truthfully, I’ve stayed in smaller Parisian hotel rooms where there’s not an ounce of floor space to spare, even for your suitcase, so compared to that, the Hoxton was a palace. And don’t forget, you’re here for ROMANCE. Things are supposed to get intimate.
And while you absolutely should not do this—you’re in Paris and in love!—you could hypothetically spend 24 hours straight at the hotel and have a pretty good time. There’s a brasserie on the ground floor of the hotel called Rivié, a loungy cocktail spot called Jacques’ Bar that is just OOZING with vibes, and a wine bar/restaurant called Planche with seating in the outdoor courtyard.
Assuming you are interested in seeing the sights outside your bedroom 😏, you’ll be glad to know that the Hoxton is pretty centrally located on the right bank. It’s a 15-minute walk to the Louvre and a 20-minute walk to the Centre Pompidou or the Marais, which is a cool-kid neighborhood you’ll def want to check out.
And there are a bunch of droolworthy restaurants nearby, including:
What more do you need to know! Nothing, that’s what. It’s time to get the hell out of dodge (or wherever you live) and visit the Hoxton, okay? C’est un order!
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