Hotel Le Sainte-Beuve

Rooms

There are four colour schemes, one for each type of room. Standard rooms, the least expensive (and smallest), come in magnolia. Moving up the price ladder: Superior rooms are pale green & café crème and Deluxe rooms are white. The junior suite Le Sainte Beuve was occupied when we visited, but it is the biggest and best of the lot and has a portrait of the great man on the wall (he lived in the street and took Victor Hugo’s wife as his mistress, some say in revenge for playing second fiddle to the great master in the world of literary criticism).

All are broadly similar: warmly decorated in homely style with plush curtains, oil paintings, upholstered chairs and a nice piece of furniture (an old oak armoire, an antique dressing table, or marble-topped bedside tables). Crisp white beds dressed in crisp white linen ensure the first purpose of all hotels; a good night’s sleep. They are spotlessly clean, with loads of storage space and a writing desk.

White marble bathrooms offer bath robes and big white towels. Some baths are three-quarter size; there are no shower curtains in the hotel (Monsieur dislikes them), but a daily maid service mops up after you.

Rooms on the first and second floors have window boxes on the outside. Many rooms can connect, perfect for families. Ask for rooms that overlook the street; they are brighter and double-glazed and you can expect a quiet night’s sleep. Those on the inside look on to a plain courtyard, but you pay a little less.