Hotel Castille Paris

From 33, Rue Cambon, where the Castille is located, it is easy to get anywhere. The hotel is a five-minute walk from Place de la Madeleine, at the heart of the wealthiest and most sophisticated district in Paris. High-end shoppers will be in their element wandering between the jewellery shops on Place Vendôme and the luxury boutiques lining Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré and Rue Saint-Honoré. The roads leading to the Louvre Museum and the Champs Elysées start at Place de la Concorde, which is just a stone's throw away. Interestingly, Coco Chanel set up her first boutique in the building next to the Castille back in 1910, and it is still in operation to this day.

The Castille is affiliated to the Italian hotel chain, Starhotel, and the antique Venetian style of its furniture blends in with its elegant more Parisian tones, making for a particularly successful Franco-Italian marriage of styles. Owing to its location and classiness, it has welcomed many a celebrity through its doors, and in the past has played host to the poet, playwright and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, as well as Jean Lifar, who was a dancer and choreographer with the Paris Opéra. All it takes is a glance into the hotel lobby and bar to see just how much attention has been paid to the interior design here: the furniture and the choice of artworks on display are the fruits of journeys the owner, a great fan of art, has made all over the world.

The Castille was formed when three private 18th century apartments were joined together and then bought by the Starhotel chain in 2005. The hotel has just recently been renovated. It consists of two wings, the Aile Opéra and the Aile Rivoli, each of which displays a different style: the first is a more classic rendition of Venice in days gone by, and the second is decidedly more modern. These two parts of the building come together at the reception, a sophisticated and sturdily designed space with classy furniture and hints of subtle antique colours. The Castille is the last Italian hotel in Paris, and the interior design is the work of Andrea Auletta, the official architect of all of the hotels owned by the chain.

The hotel's 107 guest rooms, 21 of which are suites, are spread between two houses furnished in different styles: the Aile Rivoli wing is in keeping with the Venetian tradition, while the Aile Opéra wing follows a more contemporary inclination. The rooms are all comfortable and stylish. Those in the first wing are decorated in a colour scheme combining shades of salmon pink, apple green and burgundy. The rooms in the second wing, meanwhile, feature refined, essential lines created from white, beige and black. On arrival, guests are serenaded with music from the radio that turns on automatically when the door is opened. The rooms are soundproofed and are provided with individual air-conditioning, a safe, a mini-bar, a flat-screen television, a telephone and a desk. The bathrooms are decorated in a sumptuous fashion. Whether they have an Art Deco or Venetian style, these are extremely refined spaces, as exemplified by the wash basin, which is made of Carrara marble. For security reasons, the hotel has opted not to offer a welcome tray. The rooms higher up the hotel have a fantastic view over the rooftops of Paris, and the ones on the fifth floor even have a balcony.

The name of the Castille's restaurant, Assaggio, is a giveaway of the Italian origins of the chef, Vittorio Beltramelli, and his cuisine. Beltramelli was born and grew up in Italy, before learning his trade under Alain Ducasse in Monte-Carlo and Guartiero Marchesi in Erbusco and then Paris. He prepares his simple, delicate dishes placing a great emphasis on basic ingredients, favouring the use of quality seasonal produce. Beltramalli's pasta and risotto dishes are particularly popular, and he likes to spice up his traditional Italian cuisine with a hint of international and European inspiration, adding a dash of refined originality to the cuisine. Although the Assaggio's dining room is quite an intimate space with room for only a limited number of diners, it is open to the general public. You can also eat outside on the patio, whose painted wall and fountain will make you feel as though you're sitting in a little square.