I got a look inside the most iconic spa hotel in Paris

While Paris is generally not a city that is associated with swimming, it is home to one spa hotel with pools so iconic that they still come up in media, film and literature as an example of 1920s-era chic. The Hôtel Molitor is featured prominently in the book and later 2012 blockbuster hit “Life of Pi,” but also appeared in countless books on Art Déco history and more recently the Netflix show “Emily in Paris.”

It was also where, in July 1946, French designer Louis Réard unveiled the world’s first bikini at a fashion event that caused an immediate uproar (a version of what the first modern two-piece bathing suit looked like is still on display in the lobby of the hotel).

Operating as a public bathhouse between 1929 and 1989 when it closed due to insufficient government funding, Hôtel Molitor spent 25 years as a gathering place for urban artists before being reworked into a luxury hotel that opened its doors in 2014.

An Art Deco spa gem in Paris: A peek inside the pools at Hôtel Molitor

When in Paris, I got a tour of the spa grounds on an average weekday. Fans of Art Déco architecture will immediately recognize the bright blue-and-yellow cabins that stand in much contrast to the gray Haussmann buildings one will pass to come to the hotel at the edge of the city’s 16th arrondissement.

The domed shape of the outdoor pool and surrounding changing cabins were, in 1929, all part of designer Lucien Pollet’s vision of creating a space that mirrors a luxury ocean cruiseliner, while the bright colors were his way of bringing joy to a young daughter who was going through an illness that required her to spend long stretches of time inside hospital walls.

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The outdoor and indoor pools measuring a respective 46 and 33 meters are open to Hôtel Molitor guests, members of an exclusive swimming club with a yearlong wait list and those who book day passes or treatments at the Spa by Clarins starting at €290 ($345 USD).

As someone who loves swimming and is always looking for new places where to do it, I was impressed by the fact that the outdoor pool is heated and open year-round — not an easy find in a city with gray winters like Paris — while the meticulously restored beach club vibe is precisely what foreigners and Parisians who make up a large number of those who book staycation getaways at the hotel expect to find.

The outdoor pool is designed as a lounge space for splashing around, lounging, and taking Instagram selfies, while the indoor pool is for serious swimmers with lap lanes, timers for speed-tracking, and a generally more athletic vibe, although one can still while away the day on the chaise longues that surround the pool itself. The stained-glass ceiling overlooking the pool is the work of modern artist duo Lek & Sowat and gives the pool area an additional color pop with sun rays that stream in from above.

A nod to the past and present in historic pools, a Clarins spa and a rooftop that will open soon

In a nod to the years that Hôtel Molitor spent as an urban gathering space and ultimate rave location, the original yellow-and-blue changing cabins encircling the pool basin have now also feature modern works of art from 78 artists from France and around the world (you do have to change or go inside one to find these Easter eggs).

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The 15,000-square-meter (approximately 162,000-square-foot) space has multiple other fun touches that make it a particularly good space for photo shoots — geometric shapes that further the space’s cinematic feel and graffiti-inspired wall art, a bar with the original stained-glass windows of Louis Barillet that were part of the first structure and a rooftop that promises panoramic views of Paris but is currently being renovated for the summer season.

There is a reason that, even in its many phases and transformations, this pool-turned-hotel has enchanted generations of style and architecture lovers for nearly a century now. The City of Light has countless Instagrammable locations but, for fans of design and history, this is a particularly special one.

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