Hotel Sezz

Super-cool design hotel on the quiet side of town with luxury and privacy assured

Some hotels have it, others don’t, Hotel Sezz has it in spades. We trawled through the contemporary design hotels of Paris, and unanimously crowned the Sezz la belle demoiselle. It's a very sexy hotel indeed - a standard for others to follow. No flaky imitation nonsense here, no pretentious superficiality designed to impress; instead designers who have merged architectural substance with an aesthetic joie de vivre making this a thrilling place to stay. Always functional, always pleasing, it is a hotel which is hard to pick holes in.

The 26 exquisite rooms elate. There’s a bath for two in the suite with rolled white leather headrests at each end; sublime walls of raw Portuguese stone, its fossils lit by rows of halogen lamps; super-comfortable beds dressed in the crispest Egyptian linen; and walls of mirrored glass in stupendous bathrooms. The Seine is at the end of the road, the Eiffel Tower is a short walk. Add to this some of the loveliest staff who are likely to find in France and you have a very special place to stay indeed.

Highs

• Stunningly-designed rooms; elegant, stylish, cutting-edge, hard to leave
• Stupendous bathrooms, as good as they get
• Great staff: informal, attentive, there to help

Lows

• No restaurant but there is a small champagne bar and room service
• The 16th arrondissement is quiet; the nightlife is over on the other side of town
• Not for the budget traveller who likes chintzy bedspreads and feminine touches