Norman Hôtel Paris

Who is Norman? The street outside is named after Honoré de Balzac, and a few doors away stands a hotel bearing the novelist's name. This one honours Norman Ives, an American artist and graphic designer who taught at Yale and took letters apart until they became abstract pictures. Balzac wrote thousands of pages; Ives could make something memorable out of a single fragment of type. It is a pleasingly eccentric choice of namesake for a five-star hotel near the Champs-Élysées, a district not usually short of famous names.

Step through the curtains and the idea becomes clearer. There is no conventional reception counter on display. Instead, a lounge full of vintage sofas, art books, a fireplace and a bar offers the impression of arriving at a collector's apartment while someone quietly takes care of the formalities. Architect Thomas Vidalenc has borrowed the colours and geometric confidence of the 1960s without turning the place into a museum of design. Olive green, mustard and burgundy meet old wood and leather. The result is sociable rather than solemn; you might come down for one drink and find that dinner has already begun around you.

There are only thirty-seven rooms and suites, with unusually varied room sizes. A Cozy room measures twenty to twenty-two square metres, with a queen bed. A Superior offers roughly the same amount of space, sometimes configured with twin beds, while the thirty-one-square-metre Deluxe has a king bed and a proper bathtub. That is the one to consider for two people staying more than a night. Rosewood headboards, thick wool curtains and geometric rugs keep the design consistent, but there is enough softness to stop it feeling like a showroom. Ask about the outlook: the quiet courtyard and the surrounding streets make different neighbours.

Higher up, the hotel has more ambitious ideas. The Corner Junior Suite gives you a balcony and a sitting area, although the hotel's own pages disagree slightly about its precise floor space. The forty-six-square-metre Terrace Suite has two levels and an eleven-square-metre private roof terrace; it is worth the extra expense if Paris above the rooftops is the reason for coming. Families have another option in the Sky Suite, a two-bedroom duplex of approximately fifty-seven square metres with balconies on both levels. Some balconies offer an Eiffel Tower view, but do not assume every suite does. Check the exact room before paying for a photograph.

Then there is Thiou. Apiradee Thirakomen, known to Paris simply by that name, cooked at Les Bains Douches before opening her own restaurant in 2000. Bringing her Thai cooking into the Norman gives the ground floor a reason to exist beyond hotel breakfast. Her crying tiger beef and delicate shrimp dumplings are made with the confidence of someone who had a public long before this address did. The restaurant welcomes diners from outside, and its tables open towards an inner courtyard. In a neighbourhood of grand dining rooms, this is a pleasantly different way to spend an evening. The bar has a life of its own, too.

For recovery, the Omnisens spa has a sauna, treatments and a plunge pool: a dip rather than a place to swim lengths. It is a small refuge rather than a sprawling wellness retreat. Informality here is carefully produced, and it still comes at luxury-hotel prices. The street is quieter than the Champs-Élysées a short walk away, though traffic and city noise are not abolished. The Arc de Triomphe and George V métro are close; Saint-Germain and the Marais require a journey.

The Balzac nearby belongs to the same hotel-owning family, which makes the contrast rather more interesting than a competition between neighbours. One offers a different Parisian mood; the Norman gives its guests an art-filled living room and an excellent excuse to stay downstairs for dinner. Not everyone will want to sleep inside somebody else's highly developed taste. But if the choice is between another grand name and a place with a personality of its own, Norman is worth getting to know.