If you prefer your base in Paris to be a straightforward hotel, veering a little towards the anonymous, but with personal touches, rather than one with a distinct, enveloping personality, then the Hotel d'Aubusson is a good choice. On chilly days, a log fire crackles in the grate in the elegant sitting room; staff are welcoming and friendly; there is live jazz Thursday to Saturday nights; and prices remain reasonable for the four-star comfort offered.
  The hotel, ten years old or so, occupies a 17thC honey-stone town house arranged around a large courtyard. A huge pair of double doors, formerly a coach entrance, lead from the street into the airy lobby. To the right, Cafe Laurent in various incarnations has attracted the literati and glitterati since 1690. The sitting room manages to be cosy despite its grand proportions with a high beamed ceiling, Versailles parquet floor and pretty furniture, lamps and mirrors. Appropriately, two Aubusson tapestries hang in the breakfast room next door.
  The bedrooms cocoon their inhabitants behind heavy doors in silence and restrained, if fairly unimaginative, luxury. The most expensive are massive and beamed, but even the smallest are large by local standards.