Paris: L'Hôtel (4 Star Hotel)

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Address: 13 rue des beaux arts , Paris 75006, France
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Lonely Planet review

With 20 rooms and tucked away in a quiet quayside street, this place with the most minimal of names is the stuff of romance, Paris myths and urban legends. There are rooms set aside for nonsmokers and the hotel has air-con throughout.

Rock- and film-star patrons alike fight to sleep in room No 16 where Oscar Wilde died a century ago, now decorated in green with a peacock motif, or in the Art Deco room No 36 of legendary dancer Mistinguett, with its huge mirrored bed. This was also a home away from home for the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), who stayed here many times in the late 1970s and early '80s, but it seems he may have been too sombre to have a room devoted to him. Rooms give on to a large circular atrium; the public areas include a fantastic bar and restaurant under a glass canopy designed by über-designer Jacques Garcia. In the ancient cellar there's a very modern swimming pool.