The Hotel Napoleon in Paris

 

A WEEKEND OF ROMANCE IN THE HOTEL NAPOLEON IN PARIS

Standing at the window of our suite in the Hotel Napoleon I look across the rooftops of Paris through a petalled vista of red geraniums.  In the distance the Eiffel Tower, a sparkling monument in a myriad of lights, looks for all the world like a Christmas tree.

Decorated in the Empire style favoured in Napoleon’s time, this hotel was a wedding present from a wealthy Russian émigré to a young Parisian art student. He wanted her to have a place where she could complete her studies in wonderful surroundings.

 

Painting in the Hotel Napoleon

 

Its 101 guest rooms includes 47 suites providing luxury and comfort for guests. Our two nights will be in the hotel’s Youssoupov Suite a dramatic setting in red and gold with a leopard skin print carpet that makes me feel more like Empress Josephine than a Canadian travel writer. Named in honour of Prince Felix Youssoupov who saw it as his duty to Tsar and country to kill Rasputin. When lacing wine and chocolate cake with potassium cyanide failed he ended up shooting the “holy man”. Numerous photographs of Prince Felix and his wife Princess Irina decorate the walls in the suite.

 

The rooftops of Paris

 

With my imagination in overdrive, I open the French doors and the warm fragrant scent of the City of Light drifts in. Tonight I can stand on my mini balcony high above the racing traffic on Avenue de Friedland and imagine that I am the Empress Josephine and the traffic below, carriages.

 

Photos copyright Anne Gordon

 

Posted by Anne Gordon on Monday 22nd July, 2013