Hôtel Le Ballu, Paris: Manuka Honey Rituals at the New EÏA Spa

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A five-star hotel with a garden that's almost a jungle, 35 rooms borrowing from old comic strips and 1960s Eastern Europe, and now EÏA's new holistic spa, where the rituals start with Manuka honey and the heat of a plant-filled sauna. Hôtel Le Ballu is the kind of Paris address you keep to yourself, until you don't.

Rue Ballu is one of those streets you could walk down a dozen times without really noticing. It sits in the 9th arrondissement, on the slope between the Grands Magasins and Montmartre, a few minutes on foot from the Moulin Rouge, and it's a lot quieter than you'd expect for somewhere so central. Hôtel Le Ballu is at number 30. From the street, nothing gives much away. Inside, it's a different story.

The whole hotel is built around an imaginary elsewhere, a country that doesn't exist and doesn't belong to any particular decade. If you grew up reading Tintin, the reference will land straight away: it's a wink to Syldavia, the made-up Balkan kingdom from the albums. So you get the graphic lines of old comic books, the colours and shapes of 1960s Eastern European architecture, and a vintage feeling that never tips into costume. It's playful, but it's been properly thought through. You notice the colours first, then the lamps, then the way one space quietly opens onto the next.

A garden in the middle of the 9th

The first real surprise is the garden. In a neighbourhood made of Haussmann façades and busy pavements, Le Ballu has this green, slightly overgrown pocket at its centre, the kind of place where you forget for a moment which city you're in. The restaurant opens straight onto it, and it works at almost any time of day. Service runs continuously from noon to 11pm, with a short seasonal menu, so you can come down for lunch, stay for a drink, open your laptop for an hour or meet friends in the evening without anyone rushing you. On Sundays, there's brunch.

Breakfast is served until 10:30 during the week and 11 at the weekend, which, in Paris, feels like the right kind of generosity.

Then there's the pool. Heated, with a sauna next to it, and bookable privately for 45 minutes at a time, from early morning until late in the evening. Having a pool to yourself in the middle of Paris is a rare thing, and it's one of those details that changes how a city stay feels.

The rooms

There are 35 rooms in total, from cosy 18 m² doubles to 47 m² apartments with a separate living room, and a few that come with their own private terrace. The design follows the rest of the hotel: colour, curves, vintage-inspired lighting and that slightly cinematic feel, without ever forgetting comfort. The junior suites look out over the garden and have a bathtub, and the apartment tucked under the roof, with its terrace, is the one we'd book for a longer stay.

One thing we really liked: every room has a small kitchenette, with a fridge, a Nespresso machine, a kettle and proper crockery. It sounds like a detail, but it changes the way you use a hotel room in Paris. You can come back with cheese and a baguette from the market, make your own coffee before heading out, and feel a little less like a visitor.

EÏA opens its new spa at Hôtel Le Ballu

And now there's another reason to go downstairs. EÏA, a holistic wellness hospitality concept that creates spas inside hotels, with rituals designed around each place's identity, has just opened its new spa at Le Ballu. We photographed the launch campaign, so we had the chance to spend time in the space before it opened its doors.

The idea is simple and very Parisian: wellness without leaving the city. You don't need to book a weekend in the countryside or switch your phone off for three days to feel a difference. You step out of the street, take an hour for yourself, and step back in.

The spa is split into two atmospheres, and both feel like a natural extension of the hotel. The Bain Vintage Mitteleuropaplays on the old Central European bathhouse, which fits Le Ballu's imaginary Syldavia almost too well. The Hutte Tropicale picks up where the garden leaves off, warmer, greener, a little more transporting.

The treatments

The menu is short, which we always see as a good sign. Some treatments include:

Wild Honey (60 min). A face massage with fascia work, using Activist's Manuka honey, this New Zealand brand we absolutely adore. It's the treatment that sums up the whole spa: slow, deep facial work, with Manuka honey left to do its quiet magic on the skin. Soothing, regenerating, and the one to book if you only have an hour.

Temazcal Ritual (60 min). Heat and plants: a ritual sauna session followed by a belly massage. Grounding in a way you don't quite expect.

Carnet d'Ailleurs, the signature treatment (90 min). Body and face, in a protocol adapted to you on the day.

Bassin & Sauna (45 min). The pool, the sauna and the sensory shower, privatised just for you. Ideal for two.

Paris has no shortage of hotel spas, and many of them are beautiful in a very predictable way. What makes this one different is that it doesn't try to take you away from Paris. It sits right in the middle of it, in a hotel with real personality, and simply gives you a moment to slow down before you head back out. That's Le Ballu all over. A place with a story, a garden you didn't expect, and now a spa that fits it perfectly. Whether you come for a night, a long lunch in the garden or an hour downstairs with Eïa, it's an easy one to fall for.