Art, style and the best of surprises

Where to stay in Paris? A treat, at Christmas time especially, is to be near Place Vendôme and the surrounding streets where shops are monuments to chic and the decorations - this year towering candelabra of crinkled Cellophane and shimmering silver planted on the pavement and suspended from high - put our Regent Street sputniks (or whatever they are) to deep shame.

The discreet entrance of The Park Hyatt Vendôme, next door to Cartier on rue de la Paix, opens onto a world of interiors that, thanks to architect/designer Ed Tuttle, is more Aman resort than conventional luxury hotel. Artworks are visible, or you could say in your face, at every turn. Bedrooms and bathrooms give minimalism a good name. Staff are unusually helpful.

The modern dining room with open kitchen and an arrangement of tables that brings to mind the périphérique also, quite pleasurably, goes against the grain of expectations. The cooking of chef Jean-François Rouquette was a surprise of the very best kind.

Rouquette, the son of restaurateurs in the Aveyron, has worked more than once at The Crillon - most formatively with Christian Constant alongside the darling of Paris, Yves Camdeborde - at Martinez in Cannes, Le Grand Vefour and for six years at Taillevent. This illustrious journey has led to a style that seems completely his own; buoyant, frisky, delectable.

Dishes that bear out the description included ormers (an abalone-like mollusc) meunière with a creamy spelt risotto flavoured with smoked haddock; langoustine sashimi with Aquitaine caviar and a vodka and lemon jelly; roasted spiced turbot (fabulous) from Brittany with crisp coconut rice and pak choi; pigeon "cooked like a woodcock" (head on) with salsify and chestnuts.

Patissiers in Paris attract the same adulation as chefs. In the case of Jean-François Foucher at Pur'Grill this seems entirely correct. His candy apple with gingerbread ice cream and caramelised hazelnuts seemed inspired by various fairytales, but Snow White could have eaten the shiny red spun-sugar apple with danger only to the width of her hips.

And pear and yuzu millefeuilles with tonka bean mousse was also impressive. I feel sure we shall soon read more about the oddly named Pur-Grill - maybe under the list of stars in the Michelin guide.