Keppler

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.

This style demonstrates the difficulty of grading hotel design along a single dimension, from ancient to modern. Here Pierre-Yves Rochon wraps classic elements in modern clean lines, creating interior spaces that are at once eye-catchingly contemporary and full of historical character. At a glance they’re definitively Parisian, but also definitively 21st-century.

Though at thirty-nine rooms it’s intimate enough, the Keppler quietly features a few bigger luxuries — there’s no restaurant, but there is a sauna, a steam room, and a small gym, all of which might come in handy after a long day pounding the Parisian cobblestones. Better suited to a romantic getaway or a shopping expedition than a business trip perhaps, but executives lucky enough to have business in central Paris will likely have few complaints.