Hotel Ritz is Europe's greatest hotel, an enduring symbol of elegance on one of Paris's most beautiful and historic squares. César Ritz, the "little shepherd boy from Niederwald," converted the private Hôtel de Lazun into a luxury hotel that he opened in 1898. With the help of the culinary master Escoffier, he made the Ritz a miracle of luxury living. In 1979, the Ritz family sold the hotel to Egyptian businessman Mohammed al-Fayed, who refurbished it and added a cooking school. (You may remember that his son Dodi al-Fayed and Princess Diana dined here before they set out on their fateful drive.) Two town houses were annexed, joined by an arcade lined with miniature display cases representing 125 of Paris's leading boutiques.

The public salons are furnished with museum-caliber antiques. Each guest room is uniquely decorated, most often with Louis XIV or XV reproductions; all have fine rugs, marble fireplaces, tapestries, brass beds, and more. The marble bathrooms are the city's most luxurious, filled with deluxe toiletries, sumptuous tubs, scales, private phones, cords to summon maids and valets, robes, full-length and makeup mirrors, and dual basins. Ever since Edward VII got stuck in a too-narrow bathtub with his lover of the evening, the tubs at the Ritz have been deep and big.