We’ve seen other historically inclined Parisian luxury hotels, but none that so masterfully distill the essence of this particular era. Le Cinq Codet begins with a Thirties office block, something of an early modernist monument, and the contemporary renovation stays faithful to the period. The result, thanks to the work of star designer Jean-Philippe Nuel, is something that’s as stylish as any Parisian boutique and very nearly as luxurious as any of its famous grand palace hotels.

No two rooms are the same — any hotel with even a modicum of personality is likely to include such a phrase somewhere in its promotional literature, and it is bound to be true, at least to some degree, of any hotel selected by Tablet (though there may be a Japanese capsule hotel in our future). Then again, no two snowflakes are the same either, and that’s not exactly a compelling argument for sleeping in the snow, is it?

A beautiful, distinctive, and luxurious hotel in the fantastically atmospheric Parisian district of Saint-Germain-des-Près — the Hotel Bel Ami opened its doors not long before we here at Tablet opened ours, and it’s no surprise that it’s been a favorite all these years. This 19th-century building was once a printing press, but architect and designers Géraldine Prieur and Pascal Allaman took it easy with the industrial-chic references, opting instead for a look that’s equal parts classic mid-century modernism and hyper-colorful retro-futurism. The resulting atmosphere is perfectly elegant but in no way uptight — perfect for this famously free-thinking artistic neighborhood.

The Marquis de Sers, it seems, was a country gentleman in need of a Parisian second home — he commissioned this classic four-story mansion just off the Champs Elysées in 1880, and in the intervening hundred-plus years it went on to become first a rather conventional hotel (the Queen Elizabeth) and now, a refreshingly unconventional one: the Hôtel de Sers.

Most Parisian hotels, for better or worse, fit comfortably into one category or another — the bohemian boltholes, the lavish luxury hotels, the impeccably styled minimalist boutiques. But like a lot of the best hotels, the Hôtel Montalembert defies categorization. It’s on the Left Bank but it’s far from bohemian; it’s stylish but not without substance; it’s classic without being stuck in the past. For its versatility it misses out on a bit of publicity, but there are quite a few old Paris hands who try not to stay anywhere else.

Sister hotel to the Left Bank’s Bel Ami, the Hôtel Vernet is blessed with a singular location: more or less right at the business end of the Golden Triangle, yards from the Arc de Triomphe itself, in a century-old post-Haussmann building by Albert Joseph Sélonier, with a glass dome designed by Gustave Eiffel himself.

They’re not kidding when they say it’s one of the most sought-after addresses in Paris. La Clef Louvre is right next to the Palais Royal, around the corner from the Louvre, and just off the south end of the Avenue de l’Opéra. Occupying that prestigious address is a luxury boutique hotel comprised of fifty-one suites, all of which walk the fine line between hotel suite and serviced apartment.

This is how hotel minimalism is supposed to be done — instead of feeling stripped to the studs, Hôtel de Nell is imbued with a tranquil, understated warmth, and a depth of texture that’s so often lost at other pared-down hotels. As ever, it’s all in the details: the heated parquet floors topped with easy-on-the-toes organic wool carpets, black stone-walled showers you’ll never want to get out of, and, in the better rooms, massive Japanese bathtubs carved from single blocks of raw marble and fitted with Oregon myrtlewood accessories.

“Low-key” is a word that frankly doesn’t adequately describe enough Parisian hotels. Such is the hospitality situation in the French capital that when you do find someplace that’s both thoughtfully designed and humanely spacious, you’re practically deafened by the five-star fanfare. So maybe the residential approach is the way to go. Résidence Nell, in the 9th arrondissement, means the “résidence” bit quite literally: its seventeen apartments come with functional kitchenettes, and, even in the studios, enough space for a bit of proper relaxation.

The Hôtel du Petit Moulin may take some determination to find — the sign on this listed 17th-century building still reads “Boulangerie” — but those who persevere are in for a treat. Hidden behind this century-old facade is a vibrant and contemporary environment designed from top to bottom by the fashion designer Christian Lacroix, an environment that is remarkable for the fact that it’s equally opposed both to the 19th-century antique look on display in most Parisian hotels and to the minimalist style that’s the default option for modern boutique hotels the world over.

This chateau-styled boutique hotel is blessed with a remarkable location, on the Place des Vosges, in the Marais, in the heart of historic Paris. It is housed in an eighteenth-century mansion, and the décor is full-tilt historical — no stark modernism on display, and nothing that could reasonably be called “minimal.” Instead one finds tapestries, oak beams, luxurious fabric wall coverings, striped period furniture, even reproduction oil paintings.

Sometimes the name pretty much says it all. On one level that’s true of the Grand Hôtel du Palais Royal, which isn’t shy about pointing out that it’s the only luxury hotel near the Palais Royal — in fact it overlooks the royal gardens, and is thus mere yards from the Louvre and the Tuileries as well. But on another level, the words “grand hotel” don’t quite paint the picture they once did.

As Parisian neighborhoods go, it doesn’t get much swankier than the Golden Triangle, that section of the 8th bounded by the Champs-Élysées and the Avenues Montaigne and George V. There’s no shortage of upscale hotels here, but the news that the Twenties-vintage Hotel Powers has been reborn as the Hotel Grand Powers adds another compelling destination to this already storied neighborhood.

When we started Tablet we used to complain that all Paris had going for it was its grand old palace hotels. Since then, we’ve been forced to eat our words a dozen times over, as boutique after boutique has set up shop in the French capital. But we don’t mind — a little humble pie is a small price to pay if what you get in return is hotels like Adèle & Jules, a 60-room beauty in the Right Bank’s up-and-coming Grands Boulevards district.

If there’s a common thread that runs through most of Paris’s big-name hotels it’s this: whether they’re centuries-old grand hotels or cutting-edge design experiments, they tend to announce themselves with some fanfare. For that reason we’re always partial to the soft-spoken, to Parisian hotels that buck the trend by providing a place to hide away, rather than a place to be seen — hotels like the newly renovated and revamped Hotel Recamier.

It would be difficult to imagine a location for a hotel that would be closer to the center of it all than the Hotel Thérèse. Just a stone’s throw away from the Louvre, the Palais Royal, and the Comédie Française, this hotel could hardly be in a better location for shopping or sightseeing. The Opéra, rue Saint Honoré, Place Vendôme, and Place de la Concorde are all an easy walk away, as are the major department stores. And there is no lack of public transportation in the area, for those who wish to explore further. One would almost be willing to sleep in a cardboard box in an alleyway, just to be this close to the action.

In a city as crowded with high-end accommodations as Paris, a newcomer needs to stay focused on its strengths. Amastan Paris may be a luxury hotel, but it leaves the large-scale pomp and grandeur to the city’s established palace hotels, opting instead for an upscale residential vibe. And while it may be a boutique hotel, it leaves the counterculture edge to the hipster boutiques of South Pigalle; Amastan Paris is cool in a grown-up, elegant sort of way.

It’s not at all unusual for luxury hotels to enter the restaurant business, or for famous restaurants to add lodging to their offerings. What’s less common, however, is for a gourmet food purveyor like Fauchon — imagine if Dean & DeLuca were Parisian and about a hundred years older — to try its hand at hospitality. Fauchon’s expertise in its primary area necessarily raises expectations for this new venture, and we’re happy to report that they’re met, and then some. Fauchon L’Hôtel is picture-book Paris, occupying a pair of classic mansions in the heart of the 8th, not far from Fauchon’s original location, as well as the Louvre, the Place de la Concorde, and the Jardin des Tuileries.

In Paris, one of the most-visited cities in the world, there are the old palace hotels, the new minimalist boutiques, and, as in this case, various shades in between. A newly minted classic, and a bit of a stylistic departure for Paris hotels, Hotel Daniel comes outfitted in a sort of Silk Road, east-meets-west theme — old-world Parisian interiors with handmade Chinese wallpapers, Oriental rugs, exotic fine fabrics and Syrian antiques.

New hotels open all the time; new boutiques, new design hotels, new chain hotels. It’s not every day, though, that the curtain goes up on a new grand dame. It’s a lofty goal, to be sure, but that’s exactly what the Hôtel Fouquet’s Barrière aspires to be.

In Paris we’re always on the lookout for something that shows a little restraint, whether that means understated style, unimposing atmosphere, or reasonably affordable rates. It’s rare to find all three at once, but that’s more or less what the Hôtel Keppler offers: a sensible amount of luxury, a surprising degree of quiet (for a hotel just off the Champs-Élysées), and interiors that manage to avoid excess in either direction, whether antique or avant-garde.

If you follow these things as closely as we do, the mere combination of the phrase JK Place and the word Paris will have you reaching for your wallet. For everyone else, a little background. The JK Place hotels in Rome and Capri are more or less what you see in the dictionary under “luxury boutique hotel,” combining top-shelf comforts with inimitably eclectic interiors by Michele Bönan. And now, to put it simply, they’ve established another in Paris, the city that JK founder Ori Kafri calls “the capital of the world.”

Paris already has so many extraordinary hotels that it’s downright shocking when another one opens. Le Damantin Hotel & Spa occupies a stunning red-brick 19th-century Louis XIII–style mansion on a corner overlooking the Right Bank of the Seine, and its recent conversion from a private house into a high-end boutique hotel is a substantial boon to the Parisian hospitality scene.

It’s the oldest story in real estate: the red-light district, down at heel and thus affordable for the creative artists who make up the avant garde of urban renewal, inevitably becomes the up-and-coming neighborhood where the rest of the city comes out to play. So it is with Paris’s Pigalle. And eventually, inevitably — if we’re lucky — along comes a hotel like Le Pigalle.

The interior designer, Sarah Lavoine, isn’t just one of those intimidatingly hip Parisians. She’s a much sought-after creative who lives and works — and shops, eats, and drinks — in the neighborhood. And she’s put her heart and soul into the place. The result is a 37-room boutique hotel that embodies that seemingly effortless elegance that we we love to associate with Paris.

Studio 54, New York’s most notorious nightclub, is an ancestor of sorts (via Ian Schrager) to the whole boutique-hotel trend. But imagine its Parisian equivalent shutting its doors for a renovation and actually becoming a luxury boutique hotel, and you’ve got the basic idea of what Les Bains is all about. In the late 1800s it was a public spa, and by 1980 Les Bains Douches was a bona fide den of celebrity-studded iniquity. Now it’s one of the most talked-about openings in the hospitality world.

It wasn’t all that long ago that we found ourselves continually using these pages to call for a modern boutique-style revolution in the Parisian hotel scene. Well, we certainly aren’t about to claim the credit, but the revolution, it’s safe to say, has taken place. Paris is full of design statements of all shapes and sizes — but few, it must be said, feel quite as tailor-made, quite so subtly adapted to their historical surroundings, as the Marquis Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

A new hotel by one of the original boutique hoteliers, Monsieur George is the work of Anouska Hempel, and proof that her approach is timeless, beyond trends and fashions. It’s set in a beautiful Haussmannian building just off the Champs-Élysées, surrounded by high-end shopping and classic Parisian architecture — but nothing to prepare you for the sumptuousness of its interiors, which display a richness of detail that shames the vast majority of design hotels. The atmosphere is residential, glamorous, and hyper-luxe, with comforts that rival the palace hotels; Galanga Restaurant & Bar integrates Asian flavors and verdant interior design, and the spa is a joint venture with the lifestyle, yoga, and fitness brand Le Tigre.

About Tablet Hotels: