Hôtel Plaza Athénée Paris

Fashionable and flamboyant 191-room period hotel set on the boutique-lined Avenue Montaigne. Large rooms provide spacious closets and marble baths with separate black-tiled showers, double vanities and embroidered robes and towels. Six floors are done in Louis XVI and Regency styles, with scrolled moldings, antique prints and copies of 18th- century fabrics, while the top two floors have an art deco look, complemented by fashion sketches from notable designers. Recently restyled Alain Ducasse restaurant, plus a casual brasserie, Le Relais Plaza (also overseen by Ducasse), with décor inspired by the famed ocean liner Normandie. Lovely summer courtyard; also fitness club and glamorous Dior Institut spa.