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HOTEL LE SAINT JAMES |
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MONTREAL, CANADA
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Of a host of sleek hotels to have opened in Old Montreal recently, the opulent Hôtel Le Saint James is the best. The 1870s building - one of the city's finest examples of Second Empire architecture - is stuffed to its original moulded ceilings with fine art and period furnishings. All 61 rooms and suites are decorated with handwoven rugs, antique camelhair saddles, Italian Renaissance paintings, Ming urns, Louis XVI chests, Queen Anne chairs and Penhaligon bath products. Sleek Bang & Olufsen stereos, plasma-screen TVs (some rooms have additional sets in the jade-marble bathrooms) and Miele kitchens add a modern edge to the museum-like surroundings. In keeping with the building's history as a bank HQ, the hotel opened with an eye to attracting a haute business clientele but this level of opulence is also pure theatre and has been drawing as many showbiz types as pinstripes. Discreet, attentive staff add to the private-club feel, as does the basement spa with onyx floors and a cathedral-like massage space. There is no restaurant but guests are offered a healthy buffet breakfast in the grand salon.
WHEN TO GO
In early autumn, when Montreal's maple trees are at their Technicolour best
WHICH ROOM TO BOOK
Room 301, the boardroom of the former banker tenants, with mahogany panelling and a grandiose four-poster bed under a 22-ft-high ceiling
CONTACT
Hôtel Le Saint James, 355 West Saint Jacques Street, Montreal, Canada (00 1 514 841 3111; fax: 841 1232; www.hotellestjames.com; Leading Hotels of the World (0800 2888 8882). Doubles £160; suites £245
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