Paris

There was a big crowd - and even a DJ - at Paris Est station this morning for the departure at 9.55am of the first high-speed train to link the capital to Berlin, via Strasbourg. For the first time, the route will be operated in around 8 hours, using the ICE 3...

Dubai, Singapore, Cape Town, Casablanca, Amsterdam: Mama Shelter will continue to expand in the world's major cities over the coming years. However, the lifestyle brand, founded by Serge Trigano and now part of the Accor group and its subsidiary Ennismore, is still counting on France to underpin its development. After...

One palace on the right bank, another on the left. Mandarin Oriental will soon be able to pride itself on being the only luxury hotel group to operate on both sides of the Seine with the addition of the Hotel Lutetia to its portfolio. Already established on the rue Saint-Honoré since 2011, the Asian hotelier is set to take over the Hotel Lutetia in early 2025.

Châteauform' invites itself into the historic walls of the Institut de France. France's leading MICE company has just been awarded a five-year contract to operate 3 Mazarium, the events space inside the venerable institution that has housed the five academies, including the Académie Française, since 1795. From 2019,...

Faced with steadily rising demand on its Atlantic network, and in order to prepare for the arrival of competitors such as Proxima and Le Train in three to four years' time, SNCF Voyageurs has decided to significantly increase its seat capacity to the South-West, Pays-de-la-Loire and Brittany. To achieve this, the railway company is counting on the use of...

Once the euphoria of the Paris 2024 Games has passed, followed by the generally legitimate self-congratulation of the various organisers involved, the return to reality sometimes proves complex. On the front line, the ADP Group had drawn the stopwatch in the run-up to the event, teaming up with the PAF for a new monthly barometer. Launched in April 2023, this new tool aims to...

And in the end, it's a major northern city that wins. After Gothenburg for the last two years, Helsinki has taken over the top spot in the GDS Index, the ranking of sustainable tourist destinations. Helsinki has consistently demonstrated its commitment to sustainability over the years," says Nina...

Happy. Pharrell Williams is inevitably happy. The star will soon have a nice pied-à-terre when he visits Paris. The artist, who is also creative director of Louis Vuitton's men's collections, has joined forces with investors Mohari Hospitality and Omnam to acquire the Saint James & Albany hotel and breathe new life into this establishment in the Paris Golden Triangle....

The Minor group opened its first three hotels in Paris this year, under the NH brand. Do you intend to expand further in the French capital? Soazig Drais - Paris naturally remains our priority city for growth in France. As such, we are continuing to evaluate development opportunities in other French cities.

Proxima has made a good start on the €1 billion it received from the Antin Infrastructure Partners fund before the summer. For €850 million, the future competitor of the SNCF in the west of France has just ordered 12 Avelia Horizon high-speed trains from Alstom. Delivery is due to start in 2028, which suggests that the trains will be...

Through its subsidiary Urban Station, RATP is developing its events business in Paris by rehabilitating its heritage buildings scattered around the capital. In particular, the former electrical substations built between 1900 and 1920, with their fine Art Nouveau and Art Deco architecture. The first three openings after completion of the work are scheduled...

The opening up to rail competition is set to accelerate in 2025 with the announcement today that Trenitalia will be offering services as far as Marseille on the Paris-Lyon-Marseille route, which is the busiest and, above all, the most lucrative for SNCF. "We are currently awaiting the final authorisation for services to start in 2025", the company confirmed to us this morning...

At this week's InnoTrans trade fair in Berlin, SNCF Voyageurs and Deutsche Bahn (DB) unveiled their new direct service between Paris and Berlin, operating daily from 16 December. DB will have the privilege of providing the transport thanks to its...

"We write on the walls the strength of our dreams". The Accor Group's Handwritten Collection seems to have made Demis Roussos' words its own by affixing its logo in handwritten letters to the Accor Arena. To coincide with the Taratata concert celebrating the 40th anniversary of the former POPB, the top-of-the-range...

And the best hotel in the world is... the Capella Bangkok. The World's 50 Best Hotels ranking has given its verdict, with this palace of 101 suites and villas along the Chao Phraya taking over from the Passalacqua, on the shores of Lake Como, at the top of the list. Launched last year on the...

To be the guardians of the stadium for an evening; the only occupants, or almost the only occupants, of a Parc des Princes suddenly empty after vibrating to the songs of the PSG supporters. Then to wake up in a stadium in the simple beauty that has just been woken from its slumber, this brutalist nudity designed by the architect Roger Taillibert in the...

Faced with the political and social turmoil that is now doubling as a real economic crisis in New Caledonia, the overseas territory's airline, AirCalin, is trying to survive. It has decided to restructure its network to adapt to current realities. Starting with the cancellation of its Noumea-Tokyo Narita flight. The total absence of Japanese passengers,...

How would you describe Eurostar's new corporate offer? François Le Doze - It came into force on 10 September on all our markets, with the aim of unifying the offer that existed on our two networks - cross-Channel and continental Europe - with simplicity in the contract, at a legal level, in contact with...

Do Experimental Group's lifestyle hotels attract a large business clientele? Romée de Goriainoff - Yes, they account for between 40% and 60% of our hotel occupancy. Business travellers have a rather cold image. But today, some of this clientele, particularly in the tech, fashion and investment fund sectors, are...

Rooms costing more than €1,000 on the evening of the opening ceremony, and even much more for some hoteliers criticised by UFC-Que Choisir; drastic conditions for the number of compulsory nights or cancellations: at the end of December last year, the consumer association warned of the surge in hotel rates during the...