Hôtel San Régis

A townhouse built in 1857, turned hotel in 1923, and in the same family since 1984 — the San Régis is about as close to Old Paris luxury as you'll find without it feeling like a museum. Pierre-Yves Rochon's interiors, 30 rooms and 12 suites each individually decorated, a glass-roofed restaurant, and a location between the Champs-Élysées and Avenue Montaigne.

The Golden Triangle address — a side street off Avenue François Ier — puts you in one of the most polished corners of Paris, surrounded by Haute Couture boutiques and within easy distance of the Champs-Élysées. The hotel's façade is elegant and unhurried. Inside, Pierre-Yves Rochon's interiors have the layered, accumulated quality of a house that has been properly lived in: antique furniture, sumptuous fabrics, nothing that looks like it was ordered in bulk.

Forty-two rooms and suites, each different. Sumptuous fabric, period furniture, the kind of quality that reveals itself slowly rather than announcing itself immediately. No two feel the same, which is exactly the point. The suites are worth considering seriously — the price gap between a room and junior suite is not always as wide as you might expect.

Dinner in the glass-roofed restaurant — designed like a winter garden — is one of the more pleasant dining experiences attached to a Paris hotel. Classic French with contemporary precision, good service, a menu that doesn't overpromise. Breakfast under the glass ceiling on a clear morning is reason enough to stay.

Franklin D. Roosevelt metro is a few minutes' walk. Avenue Montaigne and the Champs-Élysées are a short walk. This is the 8th arrondissement at its most refined.