Hotel Review: Hotel Da Vinci, Paris

In 1911 one of the worlds most famous paintings, the Mona Lisa, was stolen from the Louvre. Now why would we be telling you this to start off a hotel review article? Well it just so happens that the thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, brought the Mona Lisa to the building that now houses the Hotel Da Vinci. That’s right, we stayed in the same building where Mona Lisa once slept.

As the story goes, Vincenzo Peruggia was an Italian handyman that worked at the Louvre. One night he stayed late, stole the painting, and snuck it out the following morning under his shirt. It was this theft that many point to as the reason the Mona Lisa became so popular. During a time when there was no internet or television, the picture of the Mona Lisa was in newspapers across the globe.

Imagine how many likes Peruggia would’ve received on Instagram if he could have posted a selfie with the Mona Lisa?!

More than 100 years after Vincenzo Peruggia hid in what has now become Hotel Da Vinci, the hotel still keeps with the legend of this story and guests can even stay in the room where Peruggia hid. Of course the room was on the very top floor just in case police showed up he could escape using the roof.

Being a part of art history, Hotel Da Vinci is a very unique hotel with beautiful frescoes in each room, and an elegantly decorated lobby which has an old world charm. Not to mention the entire place smells amazing! They have some sort of incense that permeate throughout the entire hotel and it’s absolutely intoxicating.

Hotel Da Vinci is located in the Saint Germain Des Pres arrondissement and only a short walk from the Louvre. Besides the Louvre, there is plenty to see in this part of Paris and we enjoyed just going for a walk along the Seine River taking in the views.

Hotel Da Vinci has 24 unique rooms, all of which pay tribute to the Quattrocento, the period of time in Italy during the 15th century where there was an increasing prosperity and progression in the arts (we had to look that one up), and are named after many of the artists of this time period. We stayed in the Leonardo room on the first floor and absolutely loved it!

When we walked into the Leonardo Da Vinci room we felt as if we could channel our inner artist. From the exposed beam ceiling to the sphere lighting fixtures hanging above the bed, the decor in the room brought us back to the period of time known as the Renaissance. The beautiful fresco, the center piece of the room, was the perfect way to showcase the artistic side of this room as well as the entire hotel.

Hotel Da Vinci  is perfect for those that enjoy the arts and want to experience an interesting part of history.

Thank you Hotel Da Vinci for hosting us as we explored Saint Germain Des Pres!

As always, our opinions are our own as we Talk Travel.