Lavender's Blue: Raising the amazing to a stellar stratosphère

Forever Taken

It’s the 20th anniversary of Sofia Coppola’s cult film Marie Antoinette starring Marianne Faithfull as the heroine’s mother Empress Maria Theresa. Parisians are still obsessed with their last Queen so it didn’t take much of an excuse for Hôtel de Crillon to offer an exclusive afternoon tea for 48 days this autumn celebrating La Reine d’Ancien Régime. In fact there’s always an excuse to raise a baseless glass to Her Majesty for she took piano lessons upstairs in the building that is now Hôtel de Crillon.

Making Marie Antoinette is a 2026 publication of Andrew Durham’s on set photographs. Marianne Faithfull is quoted, “I was very gratified to play an Austrian queen because my mother Eva Sacher-Masoch was an Austrian aristocrat.” Marianne brings all the hauteur of her heritage to the screen. She reminisced, “I always thought Sofia’s film was a masterpiece. People are not always understood as the geniuses they are at the time – I certainly haven’t been! People have only come to understand Sofia’s vision more as time goes by.” The same could be now said for Marianne.

Wendy Arnold wrote 36 years ago in The Historic Hotels of Paris, “Designed by the famous architect Jacques-Ange Gabriel, the property of the Counts of Crillon until 1907 and now in the care of the Louvre Society, the Hôtel de Crillon is an architectural gem. Its magnificent marble clad interior is embellished with fine plasterwork and gilding. There is a series of high ceilinged reception rooms which can become an apartment for a king or head of state.” Or queen. It is now owned by Prince Al Mutaib bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and managed by Rosewood Hotels.

“With views across the Seine to the National Assembly and the Eiffel Tower, the Crillon is perhaps the best placed hotel in Paris,” claimed Joe Friedman 37 years ago in Inside Paris. Certainly one of the best placed. The great outdoors. “Down the avenue lined with trees,” sings Marianne Faithfull in her 1964 hit Paris Bells. And so it is with Hôtel de Crillon: a stroll along Napoléon III’s three kilometre Rue de Rivoli, past the Jardins des Tuileries, leads to the vast urban space of Place de la Concorde with its 18th century twin palaces commissioned by Louis XV. The palace nearer to Rue de Rivoli contains the fabulous Hôtel de la Marine museum. Hôtel de Crillon is part of the next palace which is beside the entrance gates to the US Embassy.

This locale is 8th Arrondisement living at its most lavish. Hôtel de Pontalba, an 1830s town mansion on Rue de Faubourg St Honoré to the immediate northwest of Hôtel de Crillon, is the residence of the US Ambassador. Marie-Thérèse François-Poncet was Founder President of Bienvenue en France, a non profit organisation welcoming foreign diplomats to France’s rich heritage. Shortly before her death earlier this year, Marie-Thérèse, said, “Ambassadorial residences are buildings that number among the most elegant private dwellings in the capital, hôtel particuliers built over the centuries that have passed through the hands of members of royal and imperial families, aristocrats and wealthy industrialists.”

Wallpaper* Paris Travel Guide by Nicola Leigh Stewart (2026) calls Les Ambassadeurs at the front of the hotel, “The most beautiful bar in Paris.” While that could well be true it does smack of the restaurant space in St Pancras Renaissance Hotel being referred to as the finest dining room in London by several reviewers. The dining rooms of three clubs alone on Pall Mall – The Atheneum, The Travellers and the Oxford and Cambridge Club – would challenge that hyperbole. Although the salon where afternoon tea is served in Hôtel de Crillon, Jardin d’Hiver, is undoubtedly the most beautiful winter garden in Paris. The great indoors.

Manolo Blahnik designed the footwear for the Marie Antoinette film so it is only but right he has a hand in curating the afternoon tea experience. A glass of Her Majesty’s favourite tipple, Rare Champagne, is served as well as cold tea (Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company elixir) and hot tea (a pot of Jardin des Bois). The deep hue of Rare Rosé Vintage 2014 is found in the stained glass of Reims Cathedral – the prestigious Champagne house is based in Reims. Pastry Chef Matthieu Carlin’s savoury and sweet creations are served on the Marie Antoinette Collection chinaware by Faïencerie de Gien, founded in 1821.

“Everything passes, everything changes,” sings Marianne Faithfull in her 2018 hit No Moon in Paris. Autumn afternoon tea in Hôtel de Crillon is a quiet culinary revolution of original takes on classics. Heightened exquisiteness. A pescatarian menu card is set on the table overlooking the Comestibles Courtyard. Comté cheese gougère; lobster bite; truffle mimosa tartlet. Fig, green cardamom Chantilly; blueberry, soft almond sponge; roasted vanilla St Honoré. Marie Antoinette waffle; chocolate laminated brioche; crispy apple tart, cinnamon leaves. Outside, silvery light falls over the shadowed statues and closed awnings.

Beyond the loggia of this hôtel particulier, manifestations are taking place (géneration désenchantée) but in Jardin d’Hiver all is serene. C’est la vie royale.

Wrapsodia.

We Shall Have A Ball

It’s been a quarter of a century since our last visit. But still there’s an air of inevitability about it. A case of when, not if. Indulging in afternoon tea at Britain’s most expensive hotel (not forgetting the 15 percent tip), that is. Lavender’s Blue intern Annabel P rocks up wearing half a diamond quarry’s worth of rocks. More (late) breakfast with Tiffany’s than Breakfast at Tiffany’s. All in a day’s work.

Storming past the trompe l’oeiled reception and faux tented lobby, we take in the tiered Céleste at The Lanesborough, a glazed roofed internal pavilion looking heavenwards. It’s Wedgwood blue now. A jasperware temple. Regency, just like the building. Last time round, the wildly eclectic gothiental Conservatory as it was then called was flamingo pink. Sometime in between, lurking here for four years was a greyish art decoesque intruder named Apsleys. The hotel has changed hands as well as hand painted wallpaper, but is still Middle Eastern owned. Once Rosewood managed, Oetker Collection has adopted it as an English half sister to Le Bristol Paris.

Christian our sommelier ensures Blenheim Palace Sparkling Natural Mineral Water is on tap. Always glad to support enterprising duchesses. Egg mayo with celeriac sandwiches are a particular hit. Even trumping the cucumber and mint. Although not quite up there with sketch Mayfair’s fried quail’s egg sandwiches (zany has a new). Dominik our waiter refills the plate. Oh! We’ve spotted another firm favourite. No, not the (mother’s) Ruinart. Caviar. Maybe not on the same scale as That Lunch at Comme Chez Soi but an effective enough Russian invasion of the Scottish salmon sandwiches.

A careless magpie’s droppings of edible gold and silver leaf are liberally sprinkled across afternoon tea, even landing in the clotted Devonshire cream. We skip the lemon curd for strawberry preserve on the freshly baked scones (enveloped in pristine linen) but yearn for coloured sugar crystals (a dead cert at Marlfield House Hotel) to melt in the coffee. Although technically this is afternoon tea. Pastry chef Nicholas Rouzaud’s celestial array of hazelnut, caramel, chocolate and lemon meringue fantasies arrive. They quickly do a Lord Lucan.

In another quarter of a century a Victorian revival will be due. Brown will be the new black. Or at least the new greige. Expect heavy oak panelling, heavier drapes (again) and half a dead zoo’s worth of taxidermy in the revamped Céleste. It will be renamed Charlotte at The Lanesborough in honour of our newly married princess.

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