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 Paris Hip Hotels
It started with the daddy of them all, Costes, so cool and self-assured that it doesn't even have a website. But these days Costes is not alone; Paris has a clutch of seriously hip hotels, and here we list our favourites...ones that work well as practical places to stay but that are also fun, with a palpable buzz of expectation around them. Some are Design hotels with a capital D...which is not to say that all Design hotels that open their doors automatically make the grade... they may think they have a right to instant fame and 'must go there' popularity but a few empty white walls and coloured plastic chairs does not a hip hotel make. A truly hip hotel needs real soul, even if it's light only burns bright for a short time. Hotels are listed by price category, and their order bears no reflection on our preference.
 Reviews by Fiona Duncan |
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| Luxury: Extravagant style magnet for A listers |
| Location: rue St-Honoré, 1st arr. |
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| Costes is a magnet for A listers: if your face doesn’t fit, the alarmingly hip staff may freeze you at 20 paces, but if it does, then this opulent faux Napoleon III cocoon, in Jacques Garcia’s most lavish haute-bordello style, is the only place to be. Great for romantics: shadowy corners, and curtained double daybeds in the fabulous pool room. Costes is so cool that its website only gives contact details, so don’t fret that there’s no link. |
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| Luxury: A traditional mansion with an exciting contemporary twist |
| Location: off avenue George V, just south of the Champs Elysées; 8th arr. |
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| Step through the sliding grey glass door and you know you’ve arrived somewhere different. The hall sets the tone: a gallery of gilt-framed portraits hangs on the panelled wall above a row of funky grey armchairs on deep purple carpet. This happy marriage of the traditionally elegant and cutting-edge design is the achievement of Thomas Vidalenc, the architect who remodelled the 19th-century mansion built for the Marquis de Sers. Rooms are airy, well-equipped havens, and the wood-panelled, candlelit S’Bar a magnet for the young crowd at cocktail hour. |
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| Luxury: Uber cool Marais hotspot, but fun and welcoming too |
| Location: Boulevard du Temple, Marais, 3rd arr. |
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| The now iconic white sofa stretched in front of the enormous working fireplace set the scene for this daringly different, definitely successful Marais hotel. Think Austin Powers meets A Clockwork Orange and you’re halfway to getting the vibe. The lift glitters, fingerprint scanners have replaced room keys and the corridors - illuminated by dark blue bulbs - make you feel like you’re already clubbing. The rooms are bright, light and fun. Two have their own tiny pools and there's a spa with pool as well. Wearing well. |
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| Luxury: Unusual town house hotel with stylish monochrome decoration |
| Location: between the Champs Elysées and rue Faubourg Saint Honoré; 8th arr. |
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| A collaboration between designer Frédéric Mechiche and artist Fabrice Hybert has produced a sleek, individual town house hotel. The ground floor is open plan, split into different areas with white brickwork, dark floorboards and groovy hanging cylindrical lights. Elements include a wall of bookshelves, fire of white pebbles, bar and breakfast area with a striking mural depicting a forest of slender trees. Upstairs, from the bedroom carpets to the bathroom tiles, the theme is stripes, with paintings adding splashes of colour to the rooms’ monochrome elegance. |
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| Luxury: 21st-century French palace and latest hip hotel |
| Location: junction of avenue George V and Champs Elysées; 8th arr. |
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| One of the latest and definitely hippest of Paris hotels, this is a collaboration between architect Edouard François and designer Jacques Garcia. They set out to create a 21st-century French palace, and Garcia has surpassed himself with such zany touches as chocolate coloured leather-clad walls (which tone with the doormen’s velvet uniforms), an exotic oval-shaped sofa in shades of gold, and TVs encased in sharkskin. Guests have their own personal butler, and service is five star. |
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| Luxury: A riot of colour, pattern and fresco in a remarkable Christian Lacroix-designed hotel |
| Location: rue de Bellechasse: just south of Musée d'Orsay; 7th arr. |
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| Not content with transforming the Petit Moulin, fashion icon Christian Lacroix has taken a one-time chain hotel in a conventional townhouse and fashioned another fanciful place to stay. Inspired by art from Roman times on, his exhilarating design combines exotic murals, with vibrant colours and patterns. The brilliant yellow, frescoed reception sets the tone, which carries on into the bedrooms. Here you might find a ceiling filled with butterflies or a giant sun bursting over one wall. An object lesson in what can be done with an ordinary space and boxy rooms. |
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| Mid Price: A superb fusion of style and character in Montparnasse |
| Location: Montparnasse; 6th arr. |
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| Two artists have deftly created the hotel’s unique look: Jerôme Mesnager, whose joyous white silhouettes are painted directly onto bedroom walls and all the way up the lift shaft, and sculptor Sophie Watrigant, whose equally endearing figures climb a dainty steel ladder from the bottom to the top of the five-storey stairwell. Bedrooms have the classy feel of a top hotel; breakfast is taken in the 'petit bistrot', on a velvet sofa beside shelves of art books, or at cinema style banquettes while watching art videos. There's a spa too, and exemplary service. Highly recommended. |
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| Mid Price: Colourful interiors by Christian Lacroix in an old boulangerie |
| Location: Marais; 3rd arr. |
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| The oldest boulangerie in Paris (where Victor Hugo probably bought his bread), its façade intact, now houses a petite, eccentric, one-off hotel with interiors by none other than Christian Lacroix, who displays the same riotous love of colour and richness, and traditional mixed with exotic as he does in his fashion designs. All 17 rooms are different; try for the best for a strong dose of Lacroix. |
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| Inexpensive: It has the right name, is in the right place and is achingly hip |
| Location: in up-and-coming SoPi (south Pigalle); 9th arr. |
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| Brainchild of graffiti artist and nightclub entrepreneur André, the Amour has come storming on to the Paris hotel scene. Currently the hottest hotel in town and, like the Costes, too hip for a proper website. Bedrooms lead off black-painted corridors lit by naked bulbs. Some have been decorated by named artists; others display risqué photographs; all are eclectic, done out in vintage colours and with flea-market finds. The buzzing bistro downstairs, all black, white and fire-engine red, swarms at night with young bohos. |
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