Hôtel Madame Rêve

At the old Poste du Louvre, Paris still has errands to run. You can buy stamps, sit a driving-theory exam and visit the police station without leaving the building. There are offices and social housing too. For more than a century this was the city's great post office, the sort of place where someone was always waiting for something to be processed. And then, above this unusually diligent piece of Paris, someone put a hotel called Madame Rêve.

The name comes from a song by Alain Bashung. It is hard to imagine a less dreamy set of neighbours. The hotel entrance on rue du Louvre is so discreet you could walk past it on the way to send a parcel. A small reception, a lift, a long corridor; then the mood changes. Outside, somebody has a form to fill in. Upstairs, nothing is urgent. It is a daydream on top of a stack of chores.

The old post office occupies an entire block, and its scale makes for some deliciously strange geography. Instead of a single grand hotel corridor, the passages are named for the streets they face. The rooms gather beneath iron and glass or open towards a planted courtyard, with views that range from the greenery under your nose to a sweep of Parisian rooftops. The best-known loft-like rooms sit beneath the great sloping roof, where the city seems to lean right into the glass. Book for the outlook rather than the romance of the word 'view': Eiffel Tower, Paris and garden-facing categories are genuinely different stays.

Inside, the colours belong to late afternoons: walnut, amber, bronze, a little gold. An onyx desk makes even answering an email feel slightly extravagant. There are postcards and works of mail art, while the carpets play little jokes with the building's previous profession. It is not the sort of place where you suddenly start craving an early night. The rooms are more seductive than restful in their styling, and some are darker than their sweeping windows suggest. At these prices, that is worth knowing before choosing the most dramatic photograph.

Downstairs, the former sorting hall has found a new occupation. Under eight-metre ceilings, Madame Rêve Restaurant gives the working day a rather better lunch break. Higher up, La Plume overlooks Saint-Eustache and serves a menu that wanders more freely around the world. But the real temptation is the roof: a thousand square metres of planting, sofas and sky, with a cocktail bar that opens to the public from late afternoon. What feels like a private escape before the evening can become one of the livelier places in the neighbourhood after it. There is a difference between dreaming above Paris and inviting half of Paris up to join you.

The small wellness area has treatment rooms and a sauna with a view over the street, but no swimming pool. You are also on the edge of Les Halles, which is excellent for going somewhere and not especially interested in quiet evenings. Garden-facing rooms may feel more sheltered; a roof-facing room delivers the great theatre of the city. It is a hotel that asks you to choose your version of the dream, and then accept its neighbours.

Perhaps the nicest moment comes on your way back in. Someone downstairs is still trying to get something done before closing time. You have already completed the day's only necessary errand: finding your way upstairs.