Paris at dawn | Shangri La Paris

Eiffel Tower at Dawn, (c) 2014 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

I spent two evenings at the Shangri La Paris at the beginning of my recent trip to France. There's been a lot of interest in this new Virtuoso property, so I wanted to get a chance to experience the hotel first-hand. My impression is quite positive. The Shangri La is a boutique hotel with just 101 rooms and suites. Decorated in a classical Parisian style that light, airy, tasteful, and updated, I enjoyed my stay very much.

If you want to see the Eiffel Tower from your room, Shangri La Paris is an ideal choice (it's the closest hotel to the Eiffel Tower). Half of the rooms have a direct view, and my ground floor Garden Suite had a good view from my patio as well as from the bathtub. Click here to see a video I took in the evening.

But better than sitting in your room, take advantage of the location to take a short walk. I left the hotel before dawn and captured the photograph above with the lights from the Pont d'Iéna reflected in the water. Then I continued walking over the bridge and spent some time at the base of the Eiffel Tower with not another tourist in sight (usually, there are hundreds of people waiting in line). On the way back to the hotel, I captured the shot below of a solitary car traveling on the cobblestoned rue Fresnel.

Rue Fresnel at Dawn, (c) 2014 by David Ourisman, all rights reserved

copyright (c) 2014 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.