Hotel De L'Abbaye by Jamie Dunford Wood

The Hotel de l'Abbaye is a perennially popular left bank favourite; not just for its elegant townhouse feel but more particularly for its friendly service, and a small but reassuring - for Americans at least - detail: the rate includes breakfast. It is amazing that other french hotels fail to pick up on this trick - good hotels which include breakfast steal a march on their rivals out of all proportion to the cost of including a few croissants. It boils down to a difference of emphasis - do you want to maximise clientele or simply the profit you make from the more limited clientele you can attract?

The pretty Hotel de l'Abbaye is set back from the road in a small courtyard , like a real 'hotel de ville'. A series of small and elegant interconnecting bars and wood-panelled sitting areas lead to a pretty courtyard garden , with a small conservatory for breakfast. A mix of rich fabrics, cushions, lamps and antiques lend these spaces a relaxed, teatime feel.

Upstairs the rooms are generally floral in tone, with patterned wallpapers, good fabrics and fine prints or oils on the walls. The larger doubles all have separate showers. There are also a couple of rooms in retro 70s style. Location-wise the hotel is close to the Luxembourg Gardens and St Sulpice - a good left bank neighborhood less cluttered with tourists.