The designer-chic Le Meurice is slap bang opposite the Jardin des Tuileries. From its elegant entrance it is a stylish sashay to the Louvre and all its delights. The Philippe Starck designed foyer restaurant is a showstopper. The subtle surrealist touches, in homage to Salvador Dali who stayed at the hotel every December for 30 years, don't detract form the hotel's elegance.  Legend has it Dali would open his window and dangle a lobster from the end of a fishing pole into the 'river' of passersby on the Rue de Rivoli. Worth looking up too because the tent-like canopy over the Dali restaurant was painted by Starck's daughter Ada, but he says she had to prove her worth like anyone else before he would use her. 

Elsewhere the suites are decorated in a more traditional  Louis XVI style, When our correspondent last stayed her suite was decorated in cool shades of mint  and blue with a to die for view over Paris and she had to muscle past a model or two and The Kaiser,  Karl Lagerfeld  himself to get to the foyer  -ahhh.. now that's a hotel with style.

Yannick Alleno is the chef of the renowned restaurant, Le Meurice with its chandeliers, painting, white damask table clothes and three Michelin stars to match.

Explore Paris on one of the hotel's absinthe green bikes or sail one of hotel's little toy boats on the pond in the Jardin des Tuileries like something out of Madeline.