Paris Hotels Special places to stay

There is -still - little to compare with the sheer man-made beauty of Paris. You may be impressed by Budapest, agape at Prague or awe-struck in Manhattan - but in Paris you are, somehow, special. Or you are part of a show that is especially, beautiful. Those unforgettable black-and-white photos by Cartier-Bresson - a couple kissing on a bridge, an old man on a bicycle - don't seem like archive material at all. Paris is authentically itself, however modern in (well-publicised) parts. Yet one of its greatest assets is, still, its ability to astonish, to be architecturally brave, to cock a snook. Wandering the streets, rapt, you will turn a corner and have your eyebrows lifted. The old magic is there but there is new magic, too - generated, for example, by modern buildings such as the Pompidou Centre and the Louvre pyramids. We have always said that 'a night in Paris is too precious to be spent in the wrong hotel'. It remains true, and Ann Cooke-Yarborough's book is as valuable a resource as ever - awash with wise suggestions and elegant descriptions. Picture, if you will, a redoubtable English woman striding purposefully through the streets of Paris, in all weathers, in pursuit of her ideal hotel. She does it on your behalf and saves you hours of disappointment - and tramping of streets. The result is a near-certain knowledge on your part that a trusted friend with a sympathetic feel for what it is you are looking for has gone on ahead of you and has reported back - with panache, style and acuity. A clever parent, according to Henry Truman (sic!), finds out what the children want and then advises them to do it. Those in 'business' are often told to do the same for their clients. We break the rules and do the opposite: we find what we like and then tell you about it. But it works a treat. Here is lots more of what we, and especially Ann, like. May Paris do for you what it has done for generations of its admirers.