"Tucked away in Paris’s quiet, leafy 16th arrondissement—just a few steps away from Avenue Foch and a short walk from the haute shopping end of the Champs-Élysées—the building that now houses the Saint James was built in 1892 at the direction of the widow of the former French president Adolphe Thiers to house scholarship students from the Thiers Foundation. Students—only 15 at a time—had the run of this gorgeous neoclassical building for a term of three years. Later, the building and surrounding 50,000-square feet of gardens became a private club, and since 1991 it has functioned as a hotel—now part of the Relais & Château collection—while continuing to host club members." - Corey Seymour