Travel: Hotel Plaza Athenee, Paris

IN THIS, its centenary year, the Plaza Athenee, with its art deco steel and glass canopy, baskets of tumbling red flowers and scarlet awnings, is as attractive as in its first flush of youth, when Josephine Baker and Rudolph Valentino gayly danced across its polished marble floors.

I’m a sucker for a grand hotel with history and Le Plaza Athenee had me at bonjour. Perfectly placed on one of Paris’s great streets and shaded by an avenue of chestnut trees, the hotel is part of the Dorchester Collection, and is almost best visited in autumn or winter when its windows warmly glow with the promise of good times.

WINING AND DINING? As a teetotaller, I was lucky to be even allowed entry to Paris, and so had to ignore the delights of the Plaza cellar, which dates back to 1911 and contains over 35,000 bottles. However, although I may not be a gastronome, I am, well, a greedy guts and so can say, hand solemnly placed on belly, that I experienced the finest meal of my life at Le Relais Plaza, the hotel’s sumptuous art deco bistro, past whose famous framed black and white pictures and illustrations the elite of Paris stroll each night. I find it hard to believe that even Alain Ducasse, the hotel’s main three Michelin star restaurant, could compete with Le Relais’s truffle-scented macaroni, a mouthful of which I saved until last and salted with my tears. Yes, it was that good.

ROOM SERVICE? Hotel Plaza is also a spa for one’s shoes. The Berluti shoe care service took my tired and battered ten-year-old Church’s brogues and transformed them into lithe and supple sprinters anxious to take off towards the boulevards of St Germain.

WORTH GETTING OUT OF BED FOR? Well, it’s Paris, you almost don’t wish to go to bed in the first place. The Plaza is perfectly positioned for the pedestrian tourist, as it is located on the famous avenue Montaigne, close to the Champs Elysees, with the Eiffel Tower not too far away and stores such as Christian Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Prada all within a few steps. The hotel sits between the Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde and it won’t take you too long to stroll down to the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay and the Grand Palais. I enjoyed the walk to Shakespeare & Co, one of the greatest book stores in the world, but others might care to take a taxi.

BUDGET OR BOUTIQUE? Neither. The Plaza Athenee is so grand its a proverbial palace. In fact its one of the nation’s Palace Hotels, so named for their style and grandeur. Think high ceilings, cool stucco, chic mouldings and fireplaces from the Haussman architectural school. The rooms have felt-lined silk taffeta curtains, deep pile carpets and are either art deco in style or Louis XV with a nod to Napoleon. You don’t know whether to lie in and order room service or rise and invade Russia.

LITTLE EXTRAS? It may not be little, and sadly it does cost extra, but one of the hotel’s unique selling points is the Dior Institute, among the finest spas in the world and designed to, in the words of Christian Dior, make women “prettier and happier”. While I only tried out the hammam steam bath, a full arsenal of treatments is available for the flushed and willing.

GUESTBOOK COMMENTS? If you want to experience the Paris of the chic and affluent Parisian, then the Plaza Athenee offers a most delicious taste. At the weekends, after 11pm, the Bar du Plaza also becomes a nightclub with its resident DJ. (I, however, was tucked up in bed with a new biography of de Gaulle.) A superior double room with two continental breakfasts starts at £495.

• The Hôtel Plaza Athenée, 25 avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris (www.plaza-athenee-paris.com)