And the House creates a first, their Dior Light Suite

When you walk into the Hôtel Plaza Athénée you know you’re in someplace special. The exterior of red awnings and fragrant sweet-smelling notes in the lobby oozes a certain level of refinement that only a Dorchester Collection hotel can provide. As you make your way down the staircase to the newly refurbished Dior Spa, you realize the refinement just keeps getting better.

Opened a few weeks ago, the spa is one-of-a-kind. First of all, no one does spas the way Dior does. From Hôtel Plaza Athénée, to the Dior Spa at the Cheval Blanc Paris, to their Haute Couture Week cruises on the River Seine, Dior knows what it’s doing when it comes to wellness. And what it’s doing is following the vision of its namesake founder Christian Dior who once said, “elegance is a whole, and what is not seen, counts as much as what is seen.”

Opened fifteen years ago, the Dior Spa was the Parisian luxury house’s first spa. In all its four-thousand plus square feet, the spa has been through quite a few renovations, including this one. Warm taupe tones that are likened to its building at 30 Avenue Montaigne’s aesthetic of light wood floors, wood tones on the walls that feels like a wellbeing haven, high curved arches that makes the space feel like a sanctuary, and cream walls with wainscoting makes the spa feel familiar and feminine.

On the other side of the reception you find the boutique with La Collection Privée Christian Dior iconic perfumes, solutions professionnelles, and exclusive Dior Spa products. The Spa includes 5 treatment rooms with one double treatment room, a sauna, a steam room, and a relaxation room with an oval-shaped fountain in the center.

The Dior Light Suite

This is a new addition to the hotel and no other luxury hotel in the city has this. The light therapy treatment has a unique ceiling that can reproduce the sun’s light. Set with LED lights that diffuse natural light on 3 levels of intensity: energizing, relaxing, and restorative, it recalibrates a person’s circadian and chronobiological rhythms that can get disrupted from travel- or just how the hustle and bustle of life can get affected.

After your treatment a balance of energy and sleep will have been restored, and signs of fatigue are eradicated, while skin enhancement is increased. The treatment is broken down into three segments that last and hour and thirty minutes. In notes from Dior, they describe each segment:

The energizing recharge ritual awakens body and mind, harmonizing the biological clock and the emotions. It draws on the glimmering dawn light that gradually blooms into the dazzling rays of the midday sun infused with the blue of the sky, as the massage techniques reactivate the organism.

The recover ritual envelops body and mind in the light of an entire day, ending with a soft, amber hued half-light to encourage recovery and high-quality sleep. Promising to help guests unwind completely, it combines a relaxing massage, a restorative siesta phase and a stimulating massage.

Lastly, with rest, the sunset light leads gently into the night in an invitation to relax, like a prelude to a night of serene sleep. A genuine pre-sleep decompression chamber, this ritual alternates sensorial stimulation through light, accompanied by massage techniques ensuring that muscle tension is released, and relaxation phases that reduce physical and emotional tension.

Since this isn’t the first time that Dior and Hôtel Plaza Athénée have partnered, here’s a little history for you. The hotel has represented luxury for over 110 years in Paris. Diagonally across the street from the hotel is Dior, which opened there in 1946. Christian Dior’s iconic Bar Suit was inspired by the hotel’s Bar at Relais Plaza. He designed this look, “to ensure that women had something comfortable to wear there,” notes Dior. When Old Hollywood from Marlene Dietrich, Ava Gardner, Lauren Bacall, Elizabeth Taylor, Rita Hayworth- and other notable women like Jackie Kennedy stayed at Hôtel Plaza Athénée, they also made their way across the street to shop at Dior.

It’s a quiet space and it truly feels like a sanctuary, a place to pull out of the busyness of a fashion week or the kinesthetic energy of Paris, and just have some “me time.” The friendly staff are attentive to guests needs and treatment desires. It’s really a place to call your Paris spa when you’re in the City of Lights.