One night in Paris. If there is a city in the world that could make just one
night memorable — and worthwhile — it would have to be Paris. Here are my
ten favourites.
Pershing Hall
I like the scale of Pershing Hall, I like its history, and I like its sense of
humour, with its nod towards General Pershing, the American general who
occupied the building during the First World War. To take a classic hôtel
particulier in the most chi-chi part of the 8th, and embellish it with
American military symbolism, and to do it in a stylish way, is clever and
fun. On the architectural side, to take a small, non-event courtyard and
turn it into a spectacular Parisian version of the Hanging Gardens of
Babylon, and use it as a venue for lunch and dinner, is chic and very
Parisian. For me the hotel has Andrée Putman’s best interior work: a
powerful combination of French contemporary sensibility and tradition. The
kind of clichés you expect, and even look forward to, and full of surprises.
49 Rue Pierre Charron, 8th (00 33 1 58 36 58 00, www.pershinghall.com).
Rooms from £287.
Saint Thomas D’Aquin
The Saint Thomas D’Aquin is a hotel you look forward to booking people into
because it’s exactly what they will be looking for in a Parisian hotel: lots
of charm, terrific location and typically Parisian details. You also book
your friends in there because it doesn’t cost what you think it’s going to
cost. How few bargains are there left in big capital cities? This is a
classic Parisian bolt hole at a price that seems wonderfully out of
proportion to what you’re getting.
3 rue du Pré-au-Clercs, 7th (42 61 01 22, www.aquin-paris-hotel.com).
Rooms from £82.
Le A
This is one of those hotels that you would never stumble across by accident.
Situated on a quiet street a few blocks from the Champs Elysées, it’s not
what you would expect to find in what is known as the Golden Triangle of
Paris, an area famous for its designer boutiques and expensive hotels. Le A
is a Marais kind of hotel that happens to be in the 8th. Its design marks a
new period in the work of the French designer Frédéric Mechiche, whose style
has evolved from a Neo-Classical influence to a focus on modern art. Le A
takes the Parisian love of detail and refinement, gives it a shake-up, and
employs one artist to furnish the interior as if it were a gallery show.
4 Rue de Artois, 8th (42 56 99 99). Rooms from £225.
Sezz
The approach of Sezz is new and different. It’s in a part of the 16th where
you wouldn’t expect to find a hotel like this, and yet it makes sense
because you’re in the most Parisian part of Paris (in other words, there are
no tourists here). Also, it’s the first hotel designed completely by
Christophe Pillet, a protégé of Philippe Starck.
6 Avenue Frémiet, 16th (56 75 26 26). Rooms from £240.
Dokhan’s
I can’t believe it’s a Sofitel. That’s the first thing people say who have
stayed in this charming historic wedge of a building tucked away a few
streets back from Trocadero in the 16th. Dokhan’s is sophisticated Paris
with a theatrical twist. Every detail, from the elevator lined with the
remains of old Louis Vuitton trunks to the tiny restaurant with boiserie
panelling that was rescued by the hotel’s designer (Frédéric Mechiche
again), makes the entire hotel an exercise in exquisite attention to detail.
117 rue Lauriston, 16th (53 65 66 99, www.sofitel.com). Rooms
from £246.
Du Petit Moulin
The Marais is a great place for exploring on foot. Its mad collection of
higgledy-piggledy streets, some no wider than a hay cart, should put you in
the mood for something different. Du Petit Moulin fits the bill perfectly.
The place is mad: the reception is part of an old boulangerie, the lifts are
decorated with collage murals by Lacroix, and each room is individual in
terms of colour, style, furniture and mood. You could write a book on all
the different creative elements brought into this one property, and yet it
doesn’t even have a bar or a restaurant. Mad — and very Marais.
29-31 rue du Poitou, 13th (42 74 10 10, www.paris-hotel-petitmoulin.com).
Rooms from £123
Costes
From the day it opened I’ve liked the Costes, and, thanks to Jean-Louis
Costes, the man who created it, it hasn’t changed. The food is still great,
the crowd is a magic melange of eccentrics, chic urbanites and wide-eyed
out- of-towners, service is precisely Parisian, it has plenty of bars, and
it still has one of the best pools in the city.
239 Rue Saint-Honoré, 1st (42 44 50 00, www.hotelcostes.com).
Rooms from £342.
L’Hôtel
This will always feature in my list, because it was the first hip city hotel I
stayed in. Long before it was renovated by Isaac Garcia, L’Hôtel, on rue des
Beaux Arts, was a favourite choice for artists visiting Paris, and for good
reason: it was decadent, indulgent and architecturally beautiful, not to
mention boasting one of the best locations on the Left Bank.
L’Hôtel, Rue des Beaux Arts, 6th (44 41 99 00, www.l-hotel.com).
Rooms from £154.
Montalembert
The Montalembert is not grand or luxurious in a traditional sense, but it has
an ambience that lingers like a subtle perfume. The attention to detail, the
small tailored spaces — ideal for afternoon tea or petit déjeuner — are
refined, sophisticated and yet thoroughly contemporary. It’s a balance that
you seem to find only in Paris. The Montalembert is probably still the best
example of it.
3 rue de Montalembert, 7th (45 49 68 68, www.montalembert.com).
Rooms from £240.
Lancaster
The Lancaster has the most beautiful suites in Paris. Whether it’s the all-red
suite with its toile de jouy bedroom and a view of the Eiffel Tower, or the
Marlene Dietrich suite with its ballroom-sized drawing room, parquet floor
and three shades of lilac, the Lancaster is tasteful and luxurious. It may
sound chic to say that you’ve stayed at the Ritz, but the Lancaster is more
stylish.
7 rue de Berri, 8th (40 76 40 76, www.hotel-lancaster.fr). Rooms
from £321.
NEED TO KNOW
Getting there: Eurostar (0870 5186186, www.eurostar.com) has
17 daily services from London Waterloo and Ashford International to Paris,
with return fares from £59.
Reading: Herbert Ypma’s city guides, Hip Hotels:
Paris and Hip Hotels: London, are published by Thames &
Hudson at £12.95 (www.hiphotels.com). Available from Times Books First for
£11.66, including p&p. Call 0870 1608080 or visit
timesonline.co.uk/booksfirstbuy.
HERBERT YPMA
The photographer and writer Herbert Ypma was born in 1957. He grew up in the
Netherlands, US, Mexico and Australia, and studied design and architecture. He
worked as a magazine publisher and journalist before moving to London in
1993 and turning to book publishing. He launched his famous series Hip
Hotels, in which he set out to find the world’s most “highly individual
places”, in May 1999. More than two million copies have been sold worldwide. Ypma
stays in and photographs every hotel he features in the series.
