Please note: While the jacuzzi at Hotel Sezz is presently closed, the hammam and massage services are still available.

Some cities are filled to the brim with chic and hyper-modern designer hotels, but Paris could always use another one. As such, Hotel Sezz is a welcome addition to the landscape, the perfect antidote to the prevailing antique hotel trend. Here, in the 16th arrondissement (hence the name), Starck protégé Christophe Pillet has created a dramatic and stylish space, a hotel that would turn heads in Milan or Barcelona and looks all the more surprising in staid old Paris.

But first you have to find it; rather than sandwiched between designer shops and department stores, Sezz is tucked away down a quiet street in an upscale residential neighborhood, with not a shop or restaurant in sight. And the facade itself is absolutely classic, offering no hint of the fantasy inside.

Once through the doors, it’s another world, one dressed not in the flashy whimsy of a Starck, but in Pillet’s own original style, a black-and-red futuristic boudoir chic. Walls of exposed grey stone convey a subterranean atmosphere, and the ultra-modern furniture is severe and masculine. It all feels a bit like the devil’s own bachelor pad, with the freestanding bed occupying the center of the room atop a thick crimson rug. Bathrooms are impeccably designed, with oversized tubs easily large enough for two. And while the single room may be passing ou... more