Review of Pershing Hall, by Jamie Dunford Wood

This mini-Costes of just 26 rooms is named after the American general Pershing that stayed in the building during the war. What he would make of Pershing Hall's trance music, the dimly lit corridors and the space-ship décor - mixed with 70s retro - is anybody's guess. All this design hotel is missing is one of Pershing's tanks outside.

The facilities

Pershing Hall has become one of the leading design hotels in Paris, and design groupies will appreciate its style. The most pleasing feature here is the courtyard garden, with its retractable roof. A wall of moist greenery tumbles down one end. The design hotel is always full of fashionable diners and drinkers, and they do a wonderful Sunday brunch with jazz. In the evenings the bar is buzzing, sometimes with a DJ.

The rooms

The design hotel's 26 rooms benefit from the building's tall ceilings giving them a spacious feel. The white walls and blond wood built-in cupboards give the rooms a stark, Spartan but new-age feel. Sinks are of the farmhouse variety, with bathrooms of grey/brown slate and travertine marble.

At the design hotel only suites and some juniors have power showers and tubs - otherwise it's a choice of one or the other. Some of the smaller junior suites have balconies. Street side rooms have tall elegant traditional windows - elsewhere the windows are modern.