Tasting of a French tea time at the Ritz Hotel in Paris (France)

On the occasion of Anh’s birthday, I surprised her by inviting her to discover the French tea time proposed by the hotel du Ritz.

For several years now, we have been used to going for a drink in top-of-the-range hotels. If the drinks are of course more expensive than in a classic bar, we appreciate the quietness, the beauty of the decoration and the quality of the service.

Today, on our way to the Ritz, it is nevertheless another level that we discover!

We arrive at 2:30 pm, time of our reservation made by phone a few weeks earlier.

Already, the hotel is located in Place Vendôme, a place reputed as one of the most luxurious in the world. In front of the hotel park luxury cars. Bodyguards with earpieces are watching the area. As soon as we enter the door, a bellman welcomes us (with the characteristic hat of the Ritz) and offers me to put away my backpack.

Clearly, we’ve changed levels.

Tea time is offered in the Proust lounge of the hotel. The Ritz is very attached to Marcel Proust because the novelist was present at the inauguration of the hotel in 1898 and he immediately made it his second home. When it reopened in 2016 (the Ritz closed for several years for a major renovation), the hotel paid homage to him through this salon.

The living room is magnificent and plunges us into another era. The portrait of Marcel Proust above the fireplace reigns over the place.

In spite of a small mess to find our reservation, the reception is impeccable. It’s quite fascinating to feel treated with so much respect while our style of dress leaves little doubt: we are intruders here 🙂 (the suit for my brother’s wedding is already in the attic!).

The tea time formula costs 68 € and entitles you to a hot drink and a selection of pastries made by the pastry chef François Perret.

The tasting begins with a piece of madeleine on which will be poured milk infused with tea.

Then follows a rum baba revisited. A delight but it is only the appetizer.

It’s time to choose your hot beverage from an impressive selection of exceptional teas and herbal teas.

Anh chooses a tea from the 500 year old wild tea bush harvest, I didn’t even know it existed. Equipped with white gloves, the waiter comes to show us the tea leaves and explains to us how it was plucked and preserved before going to prepare it, magical.

Then a tray of three floors and 16 cookies awaits us with the theme “back to childhood”.

Our favorites: the chocolate marble and the famous madeleine (from Proust).

We had made sure to have a very light lunch before coming but nevertheless, it was impossible to finish. So our waiter proposes us to put the leftovers in a box, too cool.

To apologize for the confusion over our reservation, our waiter even offers us a vanilla and vodka cocktail with a meringue.

Luxury is often measured in the attention to detail, the bill arrives placed like a bookmark in Marcel Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu.

The invoice can be found on the page that reads :

“And soon, mechanically overwhelmed by the dull day and the prospect of a sad tomorrow, I brought to my lips a spoonful of the tea where I had let a piece of madeleine soften. But at the very moment when the sip mixed with the crumbs of the cake touched my palate, I shuddered, attentive to what was happening inside me. A delicious pleasure had invaded me, isolated, without the notion of its cause. It had immediately made me feel indifferent to the vicissitudes of life, its harmless disasters, its brevity of illusion”.

We even leave with a gift: a small box of tea 🙂

After this delicious tea time, we take some time to visit the hotel: we pass by the shopping mall that Caesar Ritz, the founder of the hotel, had built for his wife. We walk along the French garden and even discover the toilets ^^. Only regret, the famous Hemingway bar was closed at that time (we will make up for it a few years later by visiting his house in Key West in Florida).









In conclusion, a great experience to live for a special experience. You will appreciate the tasting, the quality of the service, the beauty of the place and the atmosphere of another time.