I was there when La Réserve Paris Hotel and Spa opened in 2015 and have returned on numerous occasions since. I was enchanted from day one, and a decade later the spell remains unbroken. With just 40 rooms La Réserve is by far the smallest of the city’s super-elite palace-designated hotels, and it retains a discreet private quality that you might describe as residential – particularly if you are accustomed to discreet private residences that are swathed in silk, velvet, taffeta and cordovan leather, with Versaillais parquet floors, gilded reliefs, and views across Paris from Notre-Dame to the Eiffel Tower.