Marignan Champs-Elysées

Paris has its gilded grand dame hotels, its hyper-stylized high-fashion experiments, its creaky little pensions — but it can never have enough hotels like the Marignan, a full-service, clean-lined contemporary hotel styled with a light decorative touch. And for a place located just off Avenue Montaigne, a contender for the most fashionable street in Paris (and thus, arguably, the world), it’s refreshingly unpretentious, its luxuries taking the form of bedding you want to snuggle up in, to take one of many examples, not antique set pieces or head-scratching acts of designer whimsy.

Rooms start out typical-for-Paris small, but in countless other ways Hotel Marignan shows exceptional generosity. Where the Ex Voto bath products would be enough for other luxury hotels, here they add full shaving and manicure kits to the mix. And in-room espresso machines put the usual coffee pots to shame.

You’ll need coffee, for there’s plenty to explore. Start the trek at Ma Dame, where traditional French cooking and market-fresh produce combine to superlative effect. Some years ago one Christian Dior opened up shop around the way at 30 Avenue Montaigne, and in the years since nearly every major European fashion house as followed suit. The Grand Palais is steps away, as are a number of top galleries, and if that’s not enticement enough, follow your nose to Ladurée, whose macarons are the pinnacle of the form.