Saint James Paris

For most of its life, you had to be chosen to live in the house that is now the Saint James. It was built in 1892 for the Thiers Foundation, which gave a few particularly gifted young scholars three years under its roof to complete their work. It stayed that way until the 1980s. Then the house was sold, and it became a private club.

It still behaves like one. The Saint James is a members' club in a small château, with bedrooms, and for as long as you stay you are, in effect, a temporary member. The library bar, the garden, the restaurant and the spa are shared with people who belong here all year round. You are not checking into a hotel so much as being let in.

What you are let into is unusual for Paris. A gated drive leads to a house that looks as if it belongs in the countryside, set in a garden of around 5,000 square metres. Inside, the old library is now a wonderfully comfortable bar, with its bookshelves, panelling and winding staircase intact. During the day it belongs to hotel guests and club members; from seven in the evening, other Parisians can come in for a drink. At Bellefeuille, the Michelin-starred restaurant, breakfast and weekday lunch are similarly reserved for residents and members. It is a pleasure to have these rooms to yourself before the evening crowd arrives.

The house has another good reason to stay indoors. Beneath it is a Guerlain spa with a fifteen-metre pool, lit by daylight from above, along with a hammam, sauna and whirlpool. You can swim in the morning, go into Paris for the afternoon and come back for a cocktail in the library. For a hotel that feels so much like a private residence, there is a surprising amount to do without going anywhere.

Upstairs, Laura Gonzalez has furnished the 48 rooms and suites as though they belonged to a collector with a weakness for beautiful things. Patterns, old furniture, deep colours and unexpected details sit together with considerable confidence. The rooms vary greatly in size. A Boudoir can be as small as twenty square metres, while the Superior rooms, at roughly twenty-seven to thirty-four, offer more space for a longer stay. The suites are larger still, some with separate living rooms or their own unusual layouts. It pays to choose carefully.

The club arrangement has its limits. You share the house with people who are members, and travellers who like to arrive anonymously in a large international hotel may find the atmosphere a little too private. The location in the residential 16th arrondissement is wonderfully quiet but not particularly central. You will use taxis more often than you would from Saint-Germain or the Marais. The decoration is rich and eclectic, and it will not appeal to lovers of pale, minimalist interiors.

Saint James suits travellers who want a garden, a good restaurant and a sense of belonging more than a famous shopping street outside the door. There is something very pleasant about spending the day in Paris and then returning through a gate to a house that feels as though it ought to be somewhere in the countryside.