Providence

Hôtel Providence Paris is keeping things relatively quiet at the moment, in that sort of soft-opening way which, paradoxically, only serves to whet the appetite and heighten the anticipation. We’ll tell you what we do know: the location, where the 10th meets the 3rd, is one of Paris’s emerging hotspots, closer to Canal Saint Martin and the upper Marais than to any of the typical tourist destinations — it’s largely uncharted territory for hotels, and there’s no better feeling for a boutique hotelier than breaking new ground.

About that boutique hotelier: the Providence shares a lineage with Brasserie Barbès, possibly the most in-demand nightspot in Paris, as well as about a dozen more of the city’s best bars and restaurants. Architect Philippe Medioni breathed new life into this once-derelict space, decorating the Providence in a style that’s pure urban Parisian romance, retro-influenced but devoid of kitsch — palm wallpaper by House of Hackney and Madeleine Castaing carpets, if you’re a connoisseur.

The result is at once stylish and serious, and so, for that matter, is the Providence’s dedication to food and drink, those twin pillars of the Parisian good life. The hotel’s café-brasserie is the real deal, opening onto a charming terrace, and the cocktail bar makes the Providence a proper destination. And you’ll have your own little marble bartop in-room, complete with your own icemaker and the tools of the barman’s trade — normally a hotel of the Providence’s size is meant to be nothing more than a place to lay your head, but this, for once, is a boutique hotel where spending a night in is very much a live option.