Hotel Le A

"In the super-chic party zone that’s developed between the Champs-Élysées and the rue Faubourg-St-Honoré, this elegant 26-room hotel by designer Frédéric Méchiche surprises with its restrained contemporary decor. Stripes are Méchiche’s signature, and, depending on your room, you get them on the walls and/or the carpeting in a soothing palette of ash and sand. Double-glazed windows, electrically operated shades, and brilliant lighting—every lamp is on a dimmer—make for ideal rooms for anyone who’s bored by the formulaic Louis-whatever Gallic pomp that prevails elsewhere in the neighborhood. Bathrooms, unfortunately, are spartan, with no-name toiletries (at these prices?) and one irritating design flaw: a newfangled showerhead that sprays water everywhere but where you need it."