The Sheraton Shines

Say “airport hotel” and likely you envision a Motel 6 in Denver, maybe a Comfort Inn in Albuquerque. While you’ll stay there for the proximity to the airport (and the cheap rates), you have rather benign expectations. So the muffin from the breakfast buffet table is stale. No frills, no problem. Leave it to Paris to take something as utilitarian as an airport hotel and add a good dose of extravagance. While the function is unchanged—a convenient stay-over before a flight out of town (or for those on business, someplace to take respite during a convention)—the hotel experience at the Sheraton Paris Airport Hotel is radically different. When you check in the night before your departure, you trade in all that travel-day fluster (getting a taxi, heaving your bags to and fro, sitting in traffic while the precious minutes before your flight tick away) and get in return a little peace of mind, luxury-style. In a time when we have more anxious travelers than ever, perhaps we should take notice of this opportunity to add some tranquility to our travels. The scoop…The Sheraton Paris Airport Hotel has even revolutionized the basic bit about proximity to the airport; the hotel is in the airport (Terminal 2). Just below the glass floor of the lobby you can watch your fellow travelers scurry toward the Air France departure gates or the RER-TGV station (with trains to the Paris city-center, other parts of France, Brussels, and Amsterdam). If your flight is departing from Terminal 1, the staff will gladly give you a private shuttle over at no additional cost. But the hotel is more than simply location; it’s a state of mind. The building itself is designed around the concept of a boat (thereby connecting air, sea, and rail), and the celestial décor, the work of Andrée Putman, is both tasteful and soothing. The beige tones and sage green in the 256 guest rooms (11 suites) add to the sense of calm. We’re told guests staying on the executive floor can soon expect “heavenly beds,” a new bedding concept that features 16 total bed sheets and promises a blissful night’s sleep. Executive floor guests are also treated to a bottle of champagne upon their arrival, as well as free butler service (need a blouse ironed?). There’s a small but adequately stocked gym, and in the executive lounge (large screen TV, beverages, an array of small conference rooms), I took refuge in one of two black leather massage chairs. Had the hotel staff not awoken me when the lounge closed at 11:00, I would have likely passed out for the night, being kneaded and nudged through my dreams. Back in the room, laptop connections are at your fingertips (two telephone lines) and your desk will overlook a nightscape scattered with departing and arriving flights. My companion noted how strangely wonderful it was not to be able to hear the planes at all, and that’s when I noticed just how quiet everything was. I imagine this would have to be a particularly meditative experience for nervous travelers. I was certainly going to bed grateful for the knowledge that I’d be avoiding the taxi-and-traffic scramble in the morning (or worse the packed-to-the-gills train trip). We put our breakfast requests outside the door (coffee with hot milk, croissants, fresh O.J., and a U.S.A. Today) and slipped into sleep. There’s moreDining at the Sheraton is also much more than the muffins-at-the-breakfast-bar notion. You’ll have the choice of the Galaxie bar for a light meal or cocktails, Les Etoiles, a restaurant gastronomique (Chef Jean Michel Kirche), for selections like oysters ravioli and pan-fried eagle ray, or the brasserie, Les Saisons, which serves everything from salmon tartare to pasta with Bolognese sauce to profiteroles. Coming soon: a sports bar, complete with nachos and flat-screen TVs (and you thought this was a Parisian airport hotel). For those planning business trips, there are sixteen meeting rooms pre-wired for videoconferences and most other forms of technology, as well as easy access to translators. And if you’ve just got a long layover, the hotel offers “Day Use” (which accounts for a full 10-20% of business), so you can nap away, use the treadmill, get online, or take advantage of the four-hour express laundry service. All that being said, the Sheraton will cost you more than the Motel 6. Tranquil traveling, I suppose, doesn’t come cheap. Sheraton Paris Airport Hotel,Charles de Gaulle(a member of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.)Terminal 2Tel: (33) (1) 4919-7070 or (from the U.S.) 800.325.3535Fax: (33) (1) 4919-7071www.sheraton.com/ParisAirport AutoEurope Interested in renting a car and toodling around the countryside? Click here: AutoEurope.com. Copyright © Paris New Media, LLC