New Five Star Hotel Category in France

It's about time. For years, France has-- like many countries around the world-- used its own system for categorizing its hotels. As we've lamented in the past, there is no standardized international system for rating hotels, so a five-star hotel in Vietnam will not be the same as one in Dubai. For years, the hotel scale in France has maxed out at four stars, which means the opulent Parisian palace hotels like the Crillon and Hôtel Plaza Athénée-- the best the world over-- are lumped into the four-star category. Now, at long last, the French government has announced plans to create a five-star category of top lodgings.