Indulging in France's best hotel

YOU'VE heard of pet hotels. How about a human hotel where the cat in charge decides if he wants to greet you or lounge around in an empty banquet hall, arching his neck to show off his Goyard collar?

But you're not totally ignored as there are enough humans to take care of your needs in the quietly elegant Hotel Bristol on Paris's chi-chi Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore.

Close enough to the main drag of Champs Elysee without being part of the touristy hustle and bustle, Le Bristol has long been the hangout of the discreet who's who. But it has also attracted enough well-heeled regular folk who liked it enough to vote it the best hotel in France in Trip Advisor Traveller's Choice 2014. Classified as a "Palace Hotel", Le Bristol served its first guests in 1925 when owner Hippolyte Jamet set out to create Paris's most luxurious hotel in keeping with its gentrified surroundings where saddle maker Hermes and dressmaker Jean Lanvin set up their first shops. As more big fashion names moved in, Rue du Fauborg Saint-Honore became the ultra-luxe street in Paris, while Le Bristol became a magnet for celebrities such as Kim Novak and Charlie Chaplin.