![The Coco Chanel suite at Ritz Paris, named after the couturier who lived in the hotel for 34 years until her death in 1971.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170713130159/http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/r/a/h/w/1/image.related.afrWideArticleLead.940x529.gx7old.png/1499738457600.jpg)
"Le Ritz. C'est ma maison."
So said Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, who called the Ritz Paris home for 34 years from 1937. The couturier lived, loved and designed there until her death in 1971, and when I check in to my temporary home during the haute couture week in Paris it's immediately obvious her fashionable spirit is alive and well.
Walking into the royal blue and gold-themed 18th-century French lobby, I see celebrities and models emerge from chauffeured SUVs in the driveway outside on Place Vendôme, while fashion editors and photographers hold power meetings in the buzzy Bar Vendôme within as body guards discreetly flank couture clients and their husbands next door as they lunch in the leafy outdoor courtyard of the Michelin-starred restaurant Les Jardins de L'Espadon.
Fashion folk account for a remarkable 80 per cent of guests at Paris Ritz during couture, including American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who is just one of many regulars along with Anna Dello Russo, John Galliano, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino and Naomi Campbell.
![The Suite Impériale is every bit as grand as its name.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170713130159/http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/x/8/7/k/4/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1499662843126.jpg)
So synonymous has the name Ritz become with high style that it is in Webster's dictionary – "ritzy, ritzier, ritziest 1. snobbish, 2. ostentatiously smart, 3. fashionable, posh; ritziness" – but beneath the posh and storied celebrity history of the fabled hotel (Hemingway personally liberated its bar from the Nazis, Cole Porter composed Begin the Beguine at the piano, Princess Diana spent her last days there and Sophia Loren declared it "the most romantic hotel in the world") it's the sense of unhurried luxury and highly personal service that makes the hotel such a joy to stay in today.
This begins when I'm greeted by my full name by the first staff member I bump into in the lobby (god bless Google as well as good manners) before I'm whisked upstairs to my apartment by guest relations manager Pierre Paoletti, who has been with the Ritz since 1989 – "I only stopped when the Ritz closed for renovations in 2012". Not quite as long as Coco Chanel lived there, but 28 years is not bad.
Fit for royalty
When Swiss hotelier César Ritz opened the hotel in 1898, his original concept for the site was that it would have "all the refinement that a prince could desire in his own home".
In my room this means the authentic crystal taps and gold swan faucets, leather-lined wardrobe drawers, an original wall switch to control the lights that resembles an antique key, and the original pull chains by the bath to ring for a maid or valet to bring me towels. They have all been restored and supplemented with subtle technology including flatscreen televisions hidden behind antique mirrors and a heated Italian marble floor in the bathroom. The shower has three heads to cater to my individual preferences.
![Guests can choose to unwind with a few laps at the Ritz Club Paris swimming pool.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170713130159/http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/x/8/7/k/h/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1499662842800.jpg)
My room also comes with what no technology could replicate: a private balcony with a fairytale view of the verdant park of the French Ministry of Justice, where children from the Rue Cambon primary school are playing happily in the sunshine. It's all ridiculously French and pretty, so my husband and I ring for champagne to take in the view. When you telephone room service the music plays Irving Berlin's Puttin' on the Ritz, which, while it is a nice touch, does make you wonder what you can possibly do to live up to the shenanigans of history during your stay.
I simply take a bath. A very long one. I arise for just long enough for a martini in Bar Hemingway, where Ernest Hemingway knocked back enough of them that they named it after him, before falling into a deep slumber.
The next day I attend the couture shows, interview a couple of designers and meet with a publicist and a buyer. Being in Paris for couture sounds fabulous – and it is – but it also makes for long hours, tight deadlines and juggling different time zones.
So thank goodness for Chanel Au Ritz Paris, the subterranean spa dedicated to Coco next to the swimming pool in the underground area that also houses a ballroom for 400 guests and a kitchen for the Ecole Ritz Escoffier, the French cuisine cooking school. I've booked in for the two-hour treatment in the world's first Chanel spa, which has five cocoon-like treatment rooms and takes a holistic approach to beauty, in line with Coco's view that: "Beauty treatments should begin with the heart and the soul, otherwise, cosmetics are pointless."
![The elegant Suite Vendôme.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170713130159/http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/x/8/7/k/n/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1499662924706.jpg)
Sensory immersion
What this means is two hours of sensory immersion incorporating face and body massage, gentle music, undulating light and plenty of unctions designed to plump, restore and refresh. Or in my case, to relax. After a hectic day running around Paris, I drift into a deep sleep, awakening only when my therapist gently tells me our time together is over.
My time at Paris Ritz is almost over, too. While most hotels are adept in welcoming you, very few can make the process of leaving them enjoyable. The Paris Ritz is a notable exception. After a Japanese breakfast of miso, tofu, pickled vegetables and rice in L'Espadon's breakfast room – there is a United Nations of à la carte options so why not? – it's time to check out.
The Ritz offers flexible check-in and check-out times: if your flight isn't departing until the evening, you are free to stay in your room until you're ready to leave, and if you are arriving early your room will be ready for you. There's a car to drive you to and from the airport, and when it's time to get in mine I'm walked to it by a staff member and farewelled with a warm handshake and thanks for choosing Ritz Paris as my temporary residence in the city.
If I'm perfectly honest, it wasn't a difficult choice at all.
AFR Contributor