Amy McPherson checks in to the 25Hours Hotel Paris and finds it’s a lot different from your average station hotel.

Not so long ago Pigalle was considered the seedier side of Paris, a magnet for sex shops and low-rent hostelries, thanks to the topless cabarets which made it the apotheosis of city nightlife more than a century ago.  

It’s not often  you hear of a new happening neighbourhood in Paris, but one comes along every few years when you’re not looking.    You may think of Grands Boulevards merely as the great wide traffic artery where the big department stores are located, but a whole new world is springing up to the east around the city’s latest boutique hotel, Adele & Jules.

In the chic Hotel Chavanel, Paris has the very property for which the phrase “small but perfectly-formed” could have been conceived.   

Eat your heart out, stylish boutique hotels of Paris – the fashionistas are still going for the resolutely period decor of the eternally glamorous Plaza Athenee.   For a start, it’s right in their territory on the avenue Montaigne, close to Dior, Louis Vuitton and Valentino, and for another thing, they are used to divas and fulfilling their every demand.   For me, they found a Nespresso machine so I could brew up in 30 seconds on the day I needed to leave my fabulous room at 5am, and tracked down the Left Bank butcher from whom I needed to buy a Bresse chicken to take home.