80 ELLE DECOR
AERIN LAUDER FIRST SAW PARIS AS A FIVE-
year-old, with her grandmother, the cosmet-
ics legend Estée Lauder, in 1975. “We stayed at
the Plaza Athénée hotel, went to the Relais Bar
restaurant, and had the most amazing roasted
chicken and French fries,” Lauder recalls, sit-
ting on the Jean Royère sofa of her family’s Left
Bank pied-à-terre on a bright summer morning.
“I was so excited to be here. I was excited by all
the beauty.”
She still is. Several times a year, Lauder jets
to Paris for her beauty, home-decor, and fashion
company, Aerin, or for a holiday with her fam-
ily. But no Plaza Athénée suite is needed. In the
early 1990s, her parents, Ronald and Jo Carole
Lauder, purchased a three-bedroom apartment
across from Les Invalides. “They fell in love
with the view”—of the Eiffel Tower, the ornate
gold dome of Les Invalides, the sunsets—“and
the location,” right smack in the center of the