A showcase of contemporary French design that screams trendy Saint Germain. Step in to soberly studied forms and colours: a blocky black desk, soft silky chestnut curtains, a curvy steel stair rail, ochre-flecked stone floor slabs; gentle music too, and grey and café latte chairs on a teak floor by the bar. Staff are appropriately young, bright, attentive. Bedrooms reflect Saint Germain’s split personality: the drama of wine red, brown, white; the gentleness of ivory, beige. Materials are rich and yielding – thick burgundy curtains folded back on silk linings, ‘crocodile’-skin bedheads, fluffy white duvets against scarlet walls. (If you like your room with extra personality, ask for a newly redesigned one on the fourth floor, where shelves groan with modern white objets and funky lighting gleams on half-moon tables.) And the details: room numbers light-projected by the door, monogrammed linen, superb designer bathrooms in chrome and ground glass. The bar is peaceful, the lift speedy, and breakfast is down the 1930s-look stairs in a stylish rich red space. It all feels so good and the cool Left Bank laps at your feet.
