Hotel Marignan

Not to be confused with another Hotel Marignan in the Latin Quarter, Hotel Marignan Champs Elysee, as it’s called on most booking sites, is something of a hidden gem in the contemporary luxury space—and frankly one of the city’s best hotels.

You enter the hotel through an impressive wrought iron door framed by heavy Zimbabwean stone below and glistening white Art Deco above. Marignan is the product of a design collaboration between the hotel’s owner and famed interior design guru, Pierre Yovanovitch, in what is called “New French Style” (whatever that is). The incredibly sound-proofed rooms are a mixture of soft wood tones, crisp white linens and, to mix things up, black marble tiling in the handsome bathrooms. Each of the 50 rooms and suites is unique, with custom furniture and a sprinkling of high-end art pieces no doubt sourced from the many galleries in the area.

For a simple, unadorned luxury hotel in the heart of top Paris shopping, the Marignan should be your choice.

The hotel features a stunning private screening room (a surprisingly common feature in many of Paris’ better hotels), with a stock of some 250 DVDs. The seats resemble—or are even better than— first class seats found on the world’s best airlines.

If budget allows, go for the Deluxe room category, most of which are over 28sqm and have 15ft ceilings. Don’t fail to miss the exceptional sound system that is cleverly built into each room’s decor.

This is a hotel to fill your suitcase nightly with its sublime bathroom amenity line— from Ex Voto. There is live piano music on several nights and a DJ on Thursdays in the hotel’s spacious, but oddly quite deserted, lobby lounge.

As of now, breakfast is standard in the room rate, but with a decent spread in the comfortably and naturally lit restaurant, it’s worth it.