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(Bloomberg) — In Paris, a great meal can consist of a baguette, some brie and fresh figs—€8 ($8.65), tops—or a three-Michelin star, €500 tasting menu. While you’d think the same would be true of hotels, the city has never quite perfected affordable stays. 

Until now. 

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A new clutch of boutique hotels has upended the standards in Paris. During the past year or two, they’ve proved that you don’t have to sacrifice on location, air conditioning or square footage to get a good deal. Despite their starting prices—all under €500 per night—they may be leading the charge when it comes to such perks as great restaurants and fresh design across Paris.

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Read on for our favorite new (wallet-friendly) places to stay in Paris, whether you’re planning a visit for the summer’s Olympic Games or later. 

Hotel Dame des Arts

Diptyque toiletries, CBD-infused teas, super-soft sheets: They’re not the types of perks you’d normally pay €300 a night for. At Hotel Dame des Arts, they’re some of the ways this sleek Left Bank hotel makes up for small square footage in its 109 rooms with outsized thoughtfulness. 

The vibe here is ultramodern black-on-black. The shade shows up everywhere, from the toilet and taps in the bathroom to the charcoal-infused baguette served at breakfast and the walls of the super-cool subterranean gym. Concierges can be reached via WhatsApp as well as in-room phones; in the open-concept lobby, whose walls are wrapped in slatted wood as in a recording studio, you might catch beauty execs and influencers, or digital media types clacking away on laptops. 

An all-day restaurant fuses French, Mexican and Japanese cuisines, offering quesadillas and tostadas with miso dressing. By 7 p.m., you’d be wise to head to the rooftop in order to get there ahead of the crowds whose queues inevitably snake outside the hotel’s doors. They’re eager to catch spectacular views that seem to span the city. Rooms from €260 ($282) per night.

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La Fantaisie

Let it speak volumes about this 73-room hotel that its chef is Dominique Crenn, the formidable queen of French cuisine in California; her Atelier Crenn in San Francisco holds three Michelin stars. Many of the things that make this 9th arrondissement gem special are subtle details such as the teaspoons that accompany in-room coffee service, shaped like twigs with flowers and fluttering bees. The porcelain bedside table lamps look like lily pads luring frogs.

It’s no surprise that similar attention is paid to the food. At Crenn’s Golden Poppy, the Asian-inflected menu eschews meat to focus on seafood and vegetables. Here, choux pastry is used to make Japanese okonomiyaki—dainty rolls stuffed with cabbage and ginger. Tuna tartare is dry aged and seasoned with shiso leaves. Breakfast is no less tempting: Croissants come deeply baked with a nice savory brown exterior that melts into clouds of buttery perfection within.

Rare for Paris, Golden Poppy has both indoor and outdoor seating, thanks to its massive and colorful terrace; the main dining room is filled with huge potted trees to present nature. Unusual for a hotel at this price point is its spa: Tile mosaics on the walls of the steam room and plunge pool are patterned to look as if flowers are growing from below. In partnership with the Parisian brand Holidermie, the spa offers a range of traditional and newer treatments, from hot stone sessions to sculpting facial massage. Rooms from €349.

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Le Grand Mazarin

It used to be nearly impossible to stay in Le Marais—the city’s best shopping district—unless you booked an Airbnb. The most significant part of the area’s quiet evolution into a hotel hotbed is the 61-room Le Grand Mazarin, a sibling to the super-stylish, family-owned Le Coucou in Méribel and Lou Pinet in Saint-Tropez. Here, the location is as prime as it gets—just opposite the Pont d’Arcole from Notre Dame and a few blocks down from the €1,800-a-night Cheval Blanc. And the maximalist decor brings a jolt of energy from acclaimed Swedish designer Martin Brudnizki.

Take the swimming pool: Its curved ceiling is covered in fantastic floral frescoes. The rooms upstairs are similarly whimsical, inspired by aristocratic salons. Ornate tapestries hang over the beds amid leopard print cocktail chairs and pink-tiled bathrooms. 

The restaurant Boubalé is worth a visit, even if you’re not staying overnight. It’s by chef Assaf Granit, who came to fame at Jerusalem’s Machne Yehuda. He runs a handful of exceptional restaurants in Paris, sexy and glamorous spots that serve modern variations on Jewish and Israeli flavors. Dishes are mostly served family style. Get the mezze platters—the various dips get scooped up with toasted challah, not pita—and the perfectly crispy schnitzel, served with a spectacular, dill-laden potato salad. Rooms from €490.

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Madame Rêve

Framed vintage postage stamps aren’t mere wall art at Madame Reve, they’re a nod to the building’s history: The Haussmann-style edifice on the rarified Rue du Louvre was once the Grande Poste de Paris. Its 82 guest rooms are generously proportioned, with midcentury furniture, parquet floors and wood-paneled walls, many with private balconies overlooking a central courtyard. Downstairs, the decor leans more toward tradition. Heavy curtains frame double-height windows, and an original mosaic floor dates to the 19th century.

Of two onsite restaurants—the Japanese-inspired La Plume and contemporary French spot Kitchen—the latter ought to be a Paris destination in its own right. The menu is by Stéphanie Le Quellec, whose other haute French spot in town, La Scène, claims two Michelin stars. Don’t dismiss Kitchen’s traditional-sounding dishes as staid. They’re anything but that. A starter of céleri remoulade, served in a hollowed-out celeriac root, is an homage to the entire vegetable; it uses both celery and celeriac for deeper flavor and crunch. At breakfast, a mushroom omelet is revelatory—almost like a millefeuille with delicate layers that alternate between creamy and set. 

On the fourth floor is a roof terrace with nearly 360-degree views over Saint-Eustache Church, a late-Gothic masterpiece, with Sacré-Cœur and the Eiffel Tower in the distance. Given the building’s previous postal life, this more than merits a postcard. Rooms from €450.

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