This Left Bank beauty started life as a Holiday Inn with only
two redeeming features: a sparkling location on the Rive Gauche,
and a rooftop terrace space that most hoteliers would throw their
life’s savings into the Seine for. Now, under the guiding hand of
Imshan Jamal, it’s become a cool, sophisticated stay. The
property’s 109 rooms are small but sleek – a collage of bamboo,
bouclé, glass and curving corners, with Diptyque in the bathrooms
and Alessi kettles on the counter. A Mexican kitchen (perhaps
riffing on the hotel’s Latin Quarter location) serves chilli-spiked
Breton oysters, sea bream aguachile and red tuna tostadas
throughout the day. Downstairs, in the basement, a small gym is
sequestered into a curved, wooden cocoon. And the rooftop? Long
gone is the fug of Holiday Inn frumpiness; it’s now the
place-to-be-seen for Paris’ PYTs.

This is the second Paris hotel to open this summer designed by
Swedish interiors architect Martin Brudnizki. Where the first, the
Hôtel Le Grand Mazarin, is decadent, La Fantaisie is whimsical – a
hotel for bon viveurs and society butterflies. Paying homage to the
street it sits on, Rue Cadet, which is named after the famous
gardening brothers Jacques and Jean, Brudnizki’s design is an
explosion of floral frivolity with a lush, blousy courtyard garden
at its heart. Case in point? The pool is a sage green-tiled fairy
piscine hemmed in by curving walls splashed with pixelated
impressions of plantlife. All 73 rooms and suites are dreamily
colourful and kitsch, with botanical wallpaper covering ceilings
and walls, woodwork painted a pleasing pale green and real plants
pressed up against bathroom windows. The rooftop Bar sur le Toit is
equally rambunctious, while downstairs, a streetside café and
Dominique Crenn’s Golden Poppy restaurant offer all-day dining
choices to diners deposited between blooming marigolds.

A swish urban eyrie taking up floors 17 to 24 in Paris’
third-tallest tower, Laurent Taïeb’s 13th arrondissement TOO Hôtel offers an accommodation experience as
far away from typical Parisian tropes as you can get. Located in
the glassy twists of architect Jean Nouvel’s Tours Duo, TOO swaps
French linens and Louis XVI chairs for polished Philippe Starck
interiors and far-reaching skyline views, with all the mod cons a
savvy traveller could hope for. Amenities include a nature-inspired
spa, glass-walled gym and 135m-high cocktail bar equipped with a
whizzing digital art installation as entrancing as the views.
Dinner is either at the decadent Benjamin Six restaurant or
ordered, via Uber Eats, from one of four fabulous local
restaurants.

Located in the former offices of Paris’ postal service, in the
well-connected 1st arrondissement, this 82-key hotel is a
masterclass in respectful renovation, with nods throughout the
beautiful Haussmannian building to its letter-delivering past,
including street signs in the corridors and over 800 pieces of old
mail adapted into clever artwork. Two restaurants and a
sunlounger-equipped rooftop terrace open until 6pm, plus a small
spa, complete the offering. The best feature here, though, is the
location – you’re practically on the doorstep of Les Halles and the
Louvre.

Here’s another hotel that has sidestepped the chintz chic so
typical of Parisian hospitality, and focused instead on offering
slick, clean-lined living in the French capital. And, like the
sky-tickling TOO Hôtel, SO/ Paris offers wraparound views, from
floors seven to 14 of a glass-cubed, mirror-wrapped tower, this
time, just minutes from Le Marais. The vibe? Something like a
sci-fi hotel dreamed up in the 70s. Opened in 2022, the
jaw-dropping views of Paris are the stay’s USP, with
floor-to-ceiling windows making the most of the surrounding city
scenery in all 162 rooms. Paris’ far-ranging cultural kudos has
been put to use in perfecting the interiors, with maestros from the
worlds of art, design and technology all called in to sculpt the
vision. Warm, futuristic, burnt orange furnishings are the handwork
of RDAI, an architecture firm that also designs Hermès stores.
Staff uniforms – Breton stripes in hot summer hues – were created
by Patou’s Guillaume Henry. Those flickering images in the
elevators? NFT art by Parisian creatives.