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Paris Gets Another Radisson Blu

Where: 10 Place de Mexico, Paris, France, 75116

You may recall that the first totally-fly Radisson Blu to open in Paris was the Radisson Blu Le Dokhan's — where we giggled about the opportunity to get drunk on champagne and high on Louis Vuitton (mmmm) — and now the new boutique brand has opened a second chic boutique property in the City of Lights with unreal views of the Eiffel Tower: Radisson Blu Le Metropolitan, Paris Eiffel in the 16th arrondissement.

The 48-room property boasts interiors by Francois Champsaur (which are super modern; which looks cool up against the 19th century former private residence that houses the hotel) as well as "unrestricted Eiffel Tower views" — yeah, the place pretty much faces the landmark.

The hotel's Metropolitan restaurant features cuisine by an Alain Ducasse-trained chef, and you can take tea in the tea room from The O Dor (a Parisian "luxury brand") or opt for a more boozey alternative (if the views don't make you woozey — ha, see what we did there?) at the Metropolitan Bar. The hotel's got a spa and indoor pool, too, if you want to detox the ol' skin or swim some laps to work off a couple of those fancy cocktails.

Oh, yeah: and free WiFi all over the hotel. Which certainly doesn't make us Blu. Rates start at 225 Euros (around $309).

Tags: Killer View / Paris Hotels / → All Tags

Room With a Killer View: Eiffel Tower Gazing from Green Gavarni

Where: 5 rue Gavarni, Paris, France, 75116

We are suckers for a room with a killer view.  We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.

HotelChatter tipster Cecile recently stayed at the Hotel Gavarni in Paris and sent us this killer view--the Eiffel Tower might be something the locals used to want to tear down as an eyesore, but we think staring out over it from our hotel room makes the experience just that bit more Parisian.

There's another bonus about staying at the Gavarni, according to Cecile:

It's an old style hotel in the 16th arrondissement but at the same time green, they put in place variety of things such as recycling the water from the showers, organic food etc.

Yep, green is good. Even the rates are relatively reasonable: double rooms go for €160 (US$235) in the low season and the most expensive possibility, in the high season, is to grab three friends and stay in the Eiffel Suite (with this view, of course) for €550 (US$810).

Tags: Paris Hotels / Design Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags

Praise Be to the Hotel Keppler in Paris

Where: 12 Rue Kepler, Paris, France, 75116

If it's service that spells the difference between a superb stay and a 5-star dump, then we award 10 out of 10 to the Hotel Keppler, one of Paris's little-known but best design hotels.

We visited to find out about wheelchair accessibility for a disabled man who's visiting soon, a topic that usually makes French hoteliers either squirm in embarrassment or frown slightly in un-PC disapproval. US and UK laws and attitudes on accessibility of buildings aren't quite the same on the continent.

But the staff at the Hotel Keppler were falling over themselves to be helpful, pleasant and flexible about certain special arrangements that would be necessary.

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Tags: Odd Hotels / Unusual Hotels / Hotel Design / Paris Hotels / → All Tags

Staying Atop the Palais de Tokyo in the 'Hotel' Everland

Where: 13 av du Président Wilson, Paris, France, 75116

When is a hotel a hotel? And when is it a piece of art, and then when is it an alien space-ship?

There's a bit of all three posing on top of Paris's Palais de Tokyo museum of modern art, although to anyone jogging past (as our Paris correspondent was) it looks simply like the latter.

The Hotel Everland is the latest in a series of arty hotels popping up and closing down in Paris - only this one's doing it deliberately. Because despite the name, it's not a hotel but rathera work of art in the shape of a bright green and white fibreglass pod with a bed and bathroom inside.

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