Paris has close to 40 public swimming pools, but only one of them has a novel's protagonist named after it, hosted the debut of the bikini, and spent more than two decades as an abandoned canvas for graffiti artists before reopening as a five-star hotel. The Molitor, on the western edge of the 16th arrondissement, is not a hotel that happens to have a pool. It is a pool that grew a hotel around itself, and the two are impossible to separate.
Location
Molitor Hotel & Spa Paris - MGallery Collection - Photo by Benoit Auguste
The Molitor sits at 13 rue Nungesser et Coli, on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne and within easy reach of the Stade Roland-Garros and Parc des Princes. It shares the neighborhood with the Auteuil racecourse and the Jean Bouin stadium, which makes it a reasonable base if a trip happens to coincide with the French Open or a match at either stadium. This is a quieter, more residential stretch of the 16th, a short metro ride from the center of the city rather than in the thick of it.
The Rise, Fall, And Reconstruction Of A Paris Landmark
Piscine Molitor in 1932 - Photo by Eugene Rimar
The Molitor was designed by the architect Lucien Pollet and opened in 1929, built to resemble an ocean liner, complete with porthole windows and Art Deco stained glass by the master glassmaker Louis Barillet. Pollet gave the complex a grand original name, "Les Grands Établissements Balnéaires d'Auteuil," and it quickly became a fixture of Parisian social life: fashion shows, swimming galas, and in winter, when the outdoor pool was drained and frozen over, one of the city's most popular ice rinks.
Two Olympic swimmers, Johnny Weissmuller and Aileen Riggin Soule, inaugurated the pool in the summer of 1929. Weissmuller, who worked there part-time as a lifeguard, would go on to play Tarzan on screen a few years later.
The Molitor earned its most famous footnote in July 1946, when the designer Louis Réard held a press conference at the pool to unveil a daring two-piece swimsuit made from about 194 square centimeters (30 sq in) of newspaper-print fabric. He named it the bikini, after the Bikini Atoll, where the United States had tested a nuclear weapon just four days earlier.
Réard couldn't find a runway model willing to wear something so revealing, so he hired 19-year-old Micheline Bernardini, a nude dancer at the Casino de Paris, to show it off instead. The stunt worked: the International Herald Tribune alone ran nine separate stories on the unveiling, and Bernardini reportedly received more than 50,000 fan letters afterward.
Decades later, the complex also gave its name to the title character of Yann Martel's novel "Life of Pi," whose full name, Piscine Molitor Patel, is a direct nod to the pool.
Decline set in through the 1970s and 80s. The ice rink closed, the building fell into disrepair, and by 1989 the Molitor shut its doors for good. What followed is the strangest chapter of its history: left empty and exposed to the weather, the site was gradually taken over by street artists, among them Reso, Shaka, Katre, Kashink, Jace, Kouka, and Nosbe, who turned the crumbling pool halls into one of the most significant underground urban art spaces in Paris.
A free party organized by the sound system collective Heretik drew around five thousand people to the drained pool in 2001.
Decades of decay - Photo by Ros_K Photographie
The building was listed as a French historical monument in 1990, which makes what happened next a point of controversy. In 2012, despite that protected status, the entire structure was demolished except for a stretch of the original east facade and a handful of decorative elements.
The architecture historian Jean-François Cabestan later described the reconstruction that followed as a "heritage imposture," arguing that the rebuild, however faithful in appearance, could not be considered a restoration of Pollet's actual work. The project, led by Colony Capital, Bouygues Construction, and Accor, brought in architects Alain Derbesse and Alain-Charles Perrot alongside Jacques Rougerie for the pools, with interior design by Jean-Philippe Nuel.
The final cost ran to nearly 80 million euros. The Molitor reopened on 19 May 2014, faithfully recreating the yellow and blue color scheme, the porthole motifs, and the layout of the original, while adding a hotel, a spa, and a rooftop restaurant that Pollet never had to work with.
These days the Molitor turns up in pop culture too: scenes from the Netflix series "Emily in Paris" were filmed by the pool, and the video for Claire Laffut and Yseult's song "Nudes" was shot there as well.
Food and Drink
The breakfast - Photo by Axel Delai
The main restaurant, Restaurant Molitor, sits beside the outdoor pool and serves French cuisine built around seasonal, largely organic ingredients sourced through short supply chains. For something more private, "1929" is a smaller dining room reserved for hotel guests and club members, serving a European menu between the hotel's two pools.
Breakfast leans into a few signature touches, including a large salted caramel cookie alongside the usual French classics, again built on organic and locally sourced ingredients.
The Rooms
Photo by Axeldelai Mars
There are 124 rooms and suites in total, all designed by Jean-Philippe Nuel and nearly all overlooking either the outdoor pool or the city beyond it. The breakdown is one 61-square-meter suite, six pool suites (two of them with balconies over the summer pool), two executive rooms with terraces, eight executive rooms without terraces, three "hublot" executive rooms, 35 deluxe rooms, and 69 classic rooms. Every room comes with Clarins bath products and a Nespresso machine.
Hublot Executive Room
Hublot Executive Room - Photo by Francis Amiand
At 30 square meters (322 sq ft), the Hublot Executive Room takes its name from a porthole-shaped window, a direct callback to the building's ocean-liner design. It comes with a king-size bed, a 40-inch TV, a Nespresso machine, and a shower room stocked with Clarins products.
Executive Room
Executive Room with a Private Terrace
The Executive Room also measures 30 square meters (322 sq ft) and comes with a king-size bed, though two versions exist. One has a private terrace of 80 square meters (861 sq ft) with views over the city, ideal for breakfast outdoors rather than in the restaurant downstairs. The other version has no terrace but a pool view. Both sleep up to three and include a tub, a 40-inch TV, and a Nespresso machine.
Pool Suite Balcony
Pool Suite Balcony
This is one of the two pool suites with private outdoor space, at 50 square meters (538 sq ft) plus a balcony of around 5 square meters (54 sq ft) fitted with two sun loungers directly over the outdoor pool. It has a king-size bed, a tub, and Clarins products in the bathroom, and sleeps up to five.
The Spa
Suite Spa - Photo by Francis Amiand
The Spa by Clarins is billed as one of the largest hotel spas in Europe, spanning around 1,600 square meters (17,222 sq ft). It has 13 treatment rooms, including two duo cabins and a 50-square-meter (538 sq ft) private suite with its own sauna.
There are two non-mixed hammams, a relaxation room, a yoga studio, and a hair salon on-site. Treatments range from Clarins signature facials to newer technology like Hydrafacial and Icoone, alongside personalized coaching in nutrition and osteopathy.
The Gym
Indoor cycling - Photo by Jason Schieste
The fitness club, known as Le Club, is equipped by Technogym and has three training rooms for cardio and strength work, most of them looking out over the summer pool. Group classes on offer include Zumba, Pilates, aquagym, and yoga.
The Pools
Photo by Khalifa Felit
The covered pool measures 33 meters (108 ft) and sits beneath a large glass roof, ringed by the blue changing cabins spread across two levels that give the space its ocean-liner look.
The pool lockers - Photo by Francis Amiand
Seventy of those cabins have been turned over to street artists as part of an ongoing project launched in 2018, each one painted floor to ceiling, forming a self-guided gallery of contemporary urban art that visitors can wander through year-round.
The outdoor pool was originally built to Olympic length, 50 meters (164 ft), and doubled as one of the city's largest ice rinks each winter until the practice was discontinued in the 1970s. When the complex was rebuilt after 2012, the outdoor pool was reconstructed slightly shorter, at 46 meters (151 ft), and is now heated year-round so it can be used regardless of season.
La Plage Molitor
La Plage Molitor - Photo by Benoit Auguste
Also known as Bar Bikini, La Plage by Clarins is a seasonal summer terrace built in partnership with the hotel's longtime spa partner, done up in yellow and white stripes meant to evoke the French Riviera. The menu keeps things light: fresh dishes, Clarins wellness drinks, cocktails, and Pommery champagne. Upstairs, a private cabana offers short 30-minute treatments, including a signature CryoFlash facial, carried out by staff trained by Clarins.
The Rooftop Bar
The Rooftop Bar - Photo by Benoit Auguste
Open seasonally from May through September, the rooftop restaurant and bar look out toward the Eiffel Tower with the outdoor pool below, done up in the sun-yellow and azure-blue palette that runs through the rest of the hotel.
Photo by Benoit Auguste
The kitchen serves Mediterranean dishes such as crispy prawns with basil mayonnaise, burrata with roasted tomatoes, and grilled sea bream with caviar lemon, while the bar mixes cocktails built around peach, rosemary, and lavender alongside pours of Minuty rosé and Herradura tequila. Sunday brings a Mediterranean-style brunch built around shared plates: seafood paella, couscous, and pasta alle vongole.
16 Av. de la Prte Molitor, 75016 Paris, France
