The exterior of The Peninsula Paris, the view looking up through glass origami.

The first in a weekly series featuring luxury hotel expert Mary Gostelow’s hotel pick of the week.

The long-awaited The Peninsula Paris finally opened on August 1st, 2014. Could it possibly better its siblings? A first-day check-in was a Russian-Azari who flew in to pick up his latest bespoke Dior suit, and he was impressed, and not only with digital room signage that appears in the guest’s language. A full house ensued, which included Stephen Hung, the red-and-black-striped hair Chinese tycoon – he was en route to buy 30 Swarvoski-encrusted extended base Rolls, some gold-plated, for his forthcoming Louis XIII in Macau. That day too, LVMH’s Bernard Arnault came to give The Peninsula Paris the look-over prior to his own Le Cheval Blanc in Paris.

The ornate and chandelier-filled breakfast room.

From the mezzanine, looking down into the lobby.

The Peninsula, along with designer George Wong, has done it!  Take a 1908 vintage six-floor Paris palace and give the ground floor terrace an origami-style glass canopy. Original public areas, marbled, polished and white, have significant Czech crystal chandeliers. Make one gilded-frescoed room into a Parisian take on The Peninsula Hong Kong – next to it is the Shanghai-1930s theatrical Lili, with hideaway dining booths for  lovers. Up on the rooftop, devise the ultimate aeronautical restaurant, the glass bubble L’Oiseau Blanc. Reserve weeks ahead to dine under the massive clear cloche, as you gaze at the oh-so-near floodlit Eiffel Tower. And there hangs, in a void in the middle of the aviation-themed space, a life-size replica of the original L’Oiseau Blanc, which disappeared trying to beat Lindbergh across the Atlantic.

LiLi, a fibre-optic art outside the restaurant of the same name.

550 thoughtful staff – not one whiff of Parisian arrogance – look after 200 rooms, including five rooftop suites, each with a spiral staircase leading up to a private garden. The hotel has a serious indoor pool, a Life Fitness gym, and of course the BMWs, Mini Coopers and Rolls-Royces, including a 1934 Phantom, are WiFi-enabled. General Manager is the suitably unstuffy Nicolas Beliard.