There’s no escaping art in Paris, it’s all around you, and nowhere more so than Jules & Jim Hotel, where guests walk through a 15-metre photo gallery before they’ve even got to reception. Works are selected from Parisian galleries, some offbeat, some high fashion, all very cool in a nonchalant rather than strutting way. As is the rest of the hotel. The bar has a library (books are available in English for sheepish monoglots), while for the more musically inclined, the evenings welcome DJs and acoustic acts.

Guest rooms are equally sub-zero. There’s iPod docks and free Wi-Fi to go with all the glass, wood and stone. The rooms have views of either the courtyard or the city, and if you’d like a little more privacy, there are two little houses available. Then you go out for a walk and you’re in Paris. Trés chouette n’est ce pas?

Now for the construction geeks and Jen Aniston fans reading, here comes the science. A lot of the hotel has been made with Hi-Mac, an acrylic, non-porous, man-made stone which can be moulded into seemingly continuous shapes. Fascinating.

Fabricator: ADJ, France
Photo: Sébastien Véronèse
Material: HI-MACS®