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franchises, and chains. Especially helpful are her own categories of hotels, such as Brocante Chic, Design Classics, Timeless Elegance, and Historic Flavor. She invited each hotel’s owner or manager to share their coups de coeur (favorites) for their respective neighborhoods, because, as Blondes wisely notes, “the most valuable resource a Parisian hideaway has to offer is the knowledge and rich culture of its owner and management. They know their neighborhood and relish sharing its secrets with guests.… There is a good chance your stay will engender an ongoing friendship, as these hotels, like the city they encapsulate, foster fidelity. It’s hard to find someone who has visited Paris and doesn’t dream of returning.”

Paris: Hotels and More by Angelika Taschen with photos by Vincent Knapp (Taschen, 2006). I admit I was initially drawn to the beautiful feel of this book (I even like the smell of the paper!), but it’s as useful as it is pretty. Taschen has chosen hotels that capture the character and atmosphere of Paris, and includes her favorite shops and sites in each neighborhood; she’s left room for readers to record their own favorite finds as well.

I highly respect the writers of the hotel guides above and don’t pretend to share their level of expertise, but I do stand by the lodgings that I particularly like. I believe any one of the places listed below will make your stay in Paris special:

Four Seasons George V (31 avenue George-V, 8ème / +33 01 49 52 70 00 / fourseasons.com/paris). I have long been a big fan of the Four Seasons brand, and the company’s Paris outpost is a splendid success. Four Seasons acquired the George V from Trust House Forte in 1997 and basically gutted the building before reopening in 1999; before the association with Four Seasons, the original George V hotel, opened in 1928, had an illustrious history: in 1944 the hotel was General Eisenhower’s headquarters during the liberation of Paris. The recent $125 million renovation included interior design by Pierre-Yves Rochon, a reconfiguration of the guest rooms—there are now fewer rooms (245) but they are larger—and a restoration of the building’s Art Deco façade.

Photo Credit bm1.14

It’s easy to enthuse for pages and pages about the George V. There’s so much to recommend it: its service; restaurant Le Cinq, with two Michelin stars under the direction of chef Éric Briffard; a wine cellar with more than fifty thousand bottles and twenty new labels added each week; recreations manager Claudia Caringi, responsible for the hotel’s younger guests (numbering up to eighty children a month during peak times), who makes it easy to see why the George V was named a family favorite by Travel + Leisure in 2009; the house Rolls-Royce Phantom (Hermès-inspired, hand-built, and available for airport pickups, day trips, or business in Paris); its concierge desk and specifically Adrian Moore (referred to as “a food-savvy culture maven who knows Paris inside and out” by Bon Appétit, and whose blog, Adrianmoore.blogspot.com, is a great resource); its truly beautiful spa, inspired by Marie Antoinette’s beauty secrets and a summer walk in the gardens of Versailles; the list goes on. But to my mind the best feature of the George V is the flower arrangements by artistic director Jeff Leatham. Even if the hotel is too costly for a stay, drop by the hotel’s lobby, the Marble Courtyard, and the lounge La Galerie so you can see Leatham’s breathtaking creations. Approximately nine thousand blooms are purchased every week from the Netherlands, and Leatham and his seven assistants design new themes for the hotel, refreshing the flower sculptures on a daily—sometimes hourly—basis. Leatham, who had no formal training in flowers but did have a landscape artist for a father, has observed that “flowers bring out the passion in people, they exude energy, color, and light, and they can lift us above the brouhaha of everyday life.” His arrangements have set the standard for all Four Seasons hotels. (Leatham provided arrangements for Chelsea Clinton’s wedding and has his own show