Rates: From €180 a night
Added extras: Bars in the rooms to create your own cocktails
Services: Wifi, restaurant, bar and breakfast
This is more than just a passing trend – it’s a phenomenon. For several years now the trendy, independent hotels have been rejecting the typical strongholds of Parisian luxe (the 1st, 8th and 16th arrondissements) for the borders of eastern Paris. Among them, Providence from Pierre Moussié, proprietor of Chez Jeannette, Le Mansart and Le Sans Souci. His aim? To create a 5 star establishment at decent prices (from €180 a night).
Moussié has set up his eighteen-room hotel in Strasbourg Saint Denis, just opposite the Splendid and Petit-Saint-Martin theatres on a road which is astonishingly calm considering the neighbourhood’s night owl reputation. The décor is impeccable both inside and out, and the building dates back to 1850 with beautiful, charming mouldings.
In the bedrooms are antiques and velour curtains, a parquet floor, wall murals and even a Mac computer, all in a setting of the utmost class. And – a surprise addition – bedrooms also have their own bars for making your own cocktails, complete with all the necessary tools (a shaker, lemons, ginger, alcohol…). Basically, it's the dream formula: a hotel which manages to be chic, down-to-earth and terribly cool. Bravo Moussié.
