Sleepover: Hotel Esmeralda

A bed for the night in Paris

Where is it?

In rue Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, opposite Notre Dame on the Left Bank.

What's it like?

Built in 1640, this narrow town house is tucked down a side street, overlooking a leafy square, with the Seine and Notre Dame in the background. Guests enter a tiny lobby, stuffed with plants, oak furniture and squashy sofas and chairs. A ramshackle wooden staircase winds past walls hewn from rough stone blocks, hung with everything from modern art to 17th-century prints. The rarely glimpsed patronne is Madame Michèle Bruel, a painter herself and one-time doyenne of the bohemian Paris art scene. Now 81, she opened the Esmeralda 30 years ago.

What's its USP?

An eccentric gem from another age, with a quirky, artistic atmosphere. Expect Jean Rhys or Ernest Hemingway to wander, absinthe in hand, through the lobby at any moment.

Rooms?

Crazy individual concoctions; décor ranges from zany wallpapers (even on the ceilings) to unadorned hunks of stone. Furniture is a mixture of flea-market chic and the odd lovely antique piece. Ask for a bathroom to get the to-die-for view. There are 19 rooms in all, with per night prices ranging from £18 for a single to £65 for a four-person suite.

Ambience?

Bohemian to its bones.

Service?

Columbian manager Lozarno is laid-back, friendly and efficient and everyone else follows suit.

Food and drink?

Breakfast of croissants and coffee is served in a dark little room at the back (room service available). Probably more fun to cross the square to the airy, glass-windowed Café Panis facing the river.

Clientele?

Backpackers and chattering classes. Emma Thompson and her mum, Phyllida Law, in living memory. Popular film location.

Things to do?

On the fringe of the Latin Quarter, the city is on your doorstep.

Address?

Hotel Esmeralda, 4 rue Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, 75005 Paris (00 33 1 43 54 19 20).