Description Le Bristol is one of the best joints in town: a long-established and distinguished hotel in one of the city’s most fashionable streets with excellent service. Don't miss the absolutely top-notch restaurant Epicure, or the exquisite spa and indoor roof-top pool. There are 188 guest rooms, many overlooking the inner courtyards and well sound-proofed from city noise. They are feminine in style with fresh, floral fabrics reflecting the hotel’s trademark colours, vivid green and dark pink, with coordinating bedspreads, and a classic mix of chandeliers, Regency-style furniture and neutrally-toned walls.

Description Palatial comfort, space, gastronomy and the most remarkable flower displays in town sum up the sumptuous George V, situated in the Champs-Elysées golden triangle, with plenty of high-end fashion shopping in the vicinity. Suites all have vast dressing rooms – ready for substantial shopping sprees; the largest Royal and Presidential suites come with lounge, office, dining room and kitchen area, ripe for business meetings or entire families. All are in various historic styles, except for the modern Penthouse in smooth marble with several terraces, a corner dining room and outdoor sunbed. The hotel has three restaurants which hold Michelin stars.

Description Le Meurice stands out among the Paris palaces with its prime position on arcaded rue de Rivoli, just minutes from the Louvre. It's very grand yet not stuffy. Dali used to stay here with his ocelots and that has clearly left a legacy of tolerance for guest's foibles. There are chandeliers and marble galore but also a frosted mirror in the entrance hall where guests can doodle or sign their autograph. The vast first-floor Presidential suite overlooking the Tuileries is perfect for playing at Marie-Antoinette, while the Belle Etoile penthouse has its own private lift, butler's pantry and 360° views from its rooftop terrace.

Description On the avenue between the Arc de Triomphe and Parc Monceau, grand Royal Monceau was reborn after a Philippe Starck makeover as a self-proclaimed luxury art hotel, complete with gallery, art concierge, concept store and cinema. Downstairs works particularly well, with an illuminated cocktail bar and courtyard garden. The 149 rooms and suites are far from designer minimalism; rather, they are a Starck-conceived artistic clutter of eclectic lamps and tables, mixing retro and contemporary touches, with a vast island bed, photos and artworks propped against the wall and a guitar for you to strum.

Description Flanked by designer boutiques on rue Saint-Honoré is Paris' Mandarin Oriental, a bastion of elegance. The look throughout the hotel is cool and contemporary, served up with a slice of the Orient in the form of cherry wood panelling and fine silks. Whimsical touches include the butterfly motif that appears on carpets and artwork and the delightful over-sized bird cage – a folly of French fancy – for see-and-be-seen dining in the garden. The guest bedrooms are designed for lingering, with soft rugs, silk throws, warm colours and wonderfully comfy, over-sized beds lend a cosy and homely feel.

Description A hit with A-list celebrities, Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme is famed for its flamboyant Asian-inspired interiors and Michelin-starred restaurant Pur. The quietly-sophisticated interior has a tranquil aura, with modern artwork, marble floors, limestone walls, pillars and colonnades throughout the public areas, while the rooms are minimalist with a classic feel, featuring a plain beige and dark brown colour scheme with golden touches throughout, which are said to reflect Asian royalty. The Imperial Suite has its own spa, while each of the five Ambassadors suites has been uniquely decorated with varying modern art pieces.

Description This 'Palace' hotel (a notch up from five-star) drips with luxury on one of Paris’ most fashionable streets, close to the Champs Elysees. The grand reception, with brushed oak desks, has showy flower arrangements in silver cones mounted on pillars circling a mosaic marble floor. The ground-floor Alain Ducasse restaurant has silver banquettes, a wall cabinet of the chef’s culinary equipment and shimmering crystal-drop chandeliers. Some rooms have warm yellow, peony and silver colour schemes, others are in more masculine purples set off by cream or soft grey walls with shiny black lacquer furniture and modern art on walls. Some on the top of the hotel have superb views of the Eiffel Tower.

Description When opened by César Ritz in 1898, this was the most innovative hotel in Paris; the first to have lifts, electricity and private bathrooms. While presumably adding vast amounts of hidden cabling and replanting the garden courtyard, the modern hotel has preserved its period furniture and paintings à la Louis XV, and kept some of the cult features like the divisive gold swan taps. The 142 rooms and suites are crammed with patterned carpets, Empire-style lamps, chandeliers, canopied beds, rococo desks, embossed velvet sofas, and period oil paintings. The hotel has the world's first Chanel spa, bringing a gentle waft of perfume, to accompany the gym and the galleried indoor pool, kept at a tropical 31°C.

Description This hotel is an escapade into a sybaritic vision of France past with its wedding-cake facade, grand stairway and a string of historic salons, which have been listed and painstakingly restored with hand-gilded panelling and neoclassical friezes. Apart from the modern Penthouse Suite and the Imperial Suite, which has nymphs dancing across the bathroom walls and a butler's kitchen, the 81 bedrooms and suites are calmly classical, recalling the French grand lifestyle. The best have large rooftop terraces with astonishing views of the Eiffel Tower.