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From The Sunday Times

February 6, 2008

8 Paris hotels extraordinaire

A taste for the quirky and unusual? How about an outrageous Gothic beauty or a barge on the Seine?

Nuala Harvey

From The Sunday Times Travel Magazine

£255 - Le Bellechasse

‘This is art, dammit. Baroque and berserk’

Sleep? Don’t expect to – you’ll spend the night looking for clues when you hole up in Le Bellechasse, a mere brushstroke away from the Musée d’Orsay. Fantastical collages of louche nudes, men with butterfly wings, pack-of-card knaves, masked ladies, and strange images jostle, nudge and wink for your attention – all sewn together by master couturier Christian Lacroix.

As you’d expect, there’s nothing prêt-à-porter about it. All 34 rooms (soundproofed, wi-fi’d and with the obligatory flatscreen TVs) are statements – writ large – clothed in bold colours, some with open bathtubs taking centre stage.

Materials collide in a delicious confection of velvet, taffeta, brocade and snakeskin – an invitation to touch, stroke and caress. It’s a masterpiece of wit, with a touch of grotesque-verging-on-the-macabre thrown in: a heady concoction not for minimalists (or estate agents).

And light sleepers beware: room decor is challenging rather than soothing, daring your brain to decode obscure meanings, images that mess with your mind (well at least you won’t be bored). Your dreams could turn into visions, your nightmares take new turns. This is art, dammit. Baroque and berserk. Just stay off the cheese.

Hôtel Le Bellechasse (00 33 1 45 502231, www.lebellechasse.com) has doubles from £255, B&B.

£64 - Hôtel du 7e Art

‘Camp and colourful – this is pure kitsch’

It’s showtime, folks! And the name says it all. The ‘seventh art’ is cinema, and the hotel’s chunky logo recalls Hollywood’s heady heydays.

The 7e is no glamour puss, though. It’s pure kitsch – all colour and clamour, and as camp as you like. The place pays tribute to a time when films were about stars, and stars were larger than life.