Paris | Stephane Pompougnac | awesome hotel | food

I DON'T SLEEP, I DREAM
Hôtel Costes is this strange, really unique hotel. I'll go there, check in, pull down my e-mail, and if I have time, sit for an hour and people-watch, because you'll always see someone you recognize from television or a magazine or the stage there. The staff is incredibly friendly. They serve food late, too, and have the best sole I've ever had. And they have an awesome bar with great music. In fact, you can buy their CDs there. Hôtel Costes was one of the first hotels to have a deejay [Stephane Pompougnac] who created a soundtrack specific to the hotel. It kicked off this worldwide trend of places putting out CD compilations of music that they enjoy. You can buy Stephane Pompougnac's first LP [at the hotel]. He's a deejay, but he's also a songwriter, and I'm on it. I sing a song called "Clumsy."

The Montalembert is another really awesome hotel. It looks like an old building, and the ceilings are slanted and the windows open out onto Paris. I'd recommend the rooms on the top floor. One of the extraordinary things about Paris is finding yourself at the top of a building and looking across at the landscape of the roofs of the city. It's so spectacular, unlike any other city I've been in. By comparison, I'm thinking of Marrakesh and New York. You're looking out and admiring the way the old buildings are integrated into newer buildings. Adapt and reuse is a huge thing in Paris. If a building exists, rather than tear it down, they'd sooner fix it up and accommodate it for the 21st century. So what you get are these really ancient buildings that are almost like LEGOs, put together in this really crazy fashion, and you look out across the roofs and it's this beautiful forest of television wires and water towers.

FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION