Hotel Jules & Jim

Hotel Jules & Jim is pretty inconspicuous from the street -- it's tall and narrow, with a dark gray entrance. In fact, it's not too hard to imagine the building in its former life as a processing plant. On entering the lobby, travelers would also be forgiven for thinking they were in a modern art gallery, with low-lighting and stylish paintings adorning the walls. The space indeed works as a gallery of sorts, with works from local artists changed regularly and available for sale. Farther inside the hotel, the space opens up and reveals the center of the hotel -- a bright paved courtyard with leafy plant-covered walls and potted bushes. The hotel is comprised of three buildings arranged around the courtyard -- which has seating for the bar and an atmospheric fire pit. It's a cool, artistic hotel named after the iconic 60's film of the same name, and it's packed with lots of eye-catching design pieces, plus a great collection of art and design books in the bar. The hotel is mostly favored by couples, with some young families attracted by the location and two-bed Duplexes.

Hotel Jules & Jim is located on Rue de Gravilliers in the up-and-coming Haut-Marais neighborhood, where former workshops and factories have been converted into boutique fashion stores, sought after residences, and trendy hotels. The street itself is lined with fashion shops -- in particular handbag stores -- and there are plenty more a two-minute walk away on Rue du Temple. The Art & Science Museum is about a five-minute walk, and the Centre Georges Pompidou is 10 minutes away on foot. The Louvre is a longer 25-minute walk, and takes about the same amount of time to reach via the metro from Arts et Metiers station -- which is a five-minute walk from the hotel. It's a 20-minute trip to Gare du Nord by metro, and 40 minutes to the Eiffel Tower. Trains to Charles de Gaulle Airport can be picked up from Gare de Chatelet which is a 15-minute walk or metro ride away, and the journey takes about an hour altogether. Budget the same amount of time to reach Orly Airport by public transit. 

Rooms at Hotel Jules & Jim are compact, as are many in the center of Paris, and are tricked out in contemporary decor, with natural colors and dark wood walls. These details are accented with occasional pops of bright color -- like a lime green armchair or lemon yellow table. The large portrait photo artwork may not suit everyone's taste and previous guests have found the lack of storage space difficult, so it's worth upgrading for longer stays. There are four tiers of rooms spread between three buildings, from The Jules small double to the Duplex Room, which has a separate living-room with sofa-bed downstairs, and a upper-level bedroom. Some Hi-Macs Rooms have balconies overlooking the courtyard, and the cute Sous les Toits loft rooms have small balconies with views over the city rooftops as far as Sacre Couer. All rooms have flat-screen TVs, bluetooth speakers, safes, air-conditioning and free Wi-Fi, while Duplexes add Nespresso coffee machines. Bathrooms are modern, with marble counter-tops, large rainfall showers, and Molton Brown products. Duplexes add a tub and bathrobes to the upper-floor bathroom, with a separate toilet downstairs.

Hotel Jules & Jim is a small boutique hotel with a trendy bar on-site -- popular with locals and guests alike. It has an excellent cocktail menu, a great book collection and both sofa and table seating. The bar opens onto a covered seating area in the pretty central courtyard, which also has a fire pit. The hotel provides 24-hour room service for beer, wine, drinks, and hot drinks, though cocktails are only available during bar opening times. A well-liked continental buffet breakfast is served until relatively late, though the price is steep. Wi-Fi is free throughout the hotel.