L'Hôtel

Stand in the middle of L'Hôtel and look up. A staircase winds round and round the atrium towards a dome, six floors above, past the doors of twenty rooms. It is the first thing everyone remembers about the place, and it explains the rest. L'Hôtel is built like a small theatre, with twenty bedrooms, each dressed for a different play.

The designer Jacques Garcia did the dressing, and he did not hold back. One room has the mirrored Art Deco bed that belonged to Mistinguett, the music-hall star. Another is dedicated to Oscar Wilde, who spent his last months here in 1900, when this was a modest hotel called the Hôtel d'Alsace and he was, as he put it, dying beyond his means. His namesake suite is now a rather splendid affair, with green peacock wallpaper, a private terrace and a bathroom considerably more comfortable than anything he knew. No two rooms look much alike, and that is half the pleasure.

The theatrical streak continues downstairs. Wilde's Lounge serves cocktails late into the evening, with a resident DJ on Thursdays and small plates for anyone who wants to stay a little longer. Below ground, in the old vaulted cellars, a small pool and steam room can be booked for an hour, entirely to yourself. And outside the door is the rue des Beaux-Arts, a quiet street of galleries a block from the Seine, with the restaurants, shops and cafés of Saint-Germain all within walking distance. For a hotel with only twenty rooms, there is a surprising amount to enjoy without going very far.

The rooms are where to choose carefully. The smallest Mignon rooms measure just seventeen square metres, and with Garcia's rich fabrics and elaborate decoration they can feel very snug. For several nights, the thirty-square-metre Grand rooms give you more room to breathe, while the thirty-five-square-metre Chic rooms offer some of the hotel's most extravagant interiors. The Oscar Wilde Suite is the one for a special occasion. There is no grand lobby, no large restaurant and little space for families with luggage. The décor is dense, dim and dramatic, which some guests will adore and others will find a little airless.

L'Hôtel is for couples, romantics and travellers who would rather have a room with a personality than one with a familiar five-star look. It is not a hotel for people who value space, daylight and restraint above everything else. But if you like the idea of an evening at Wilde's, an hour alone in the pool and a bedroom quite unlike any you have slept in before, there are few more enjoyable places to stay in Saint-Germain.