I was reading Baby Girl’s blog – www.purecomplex.com and she was talking about a new fabulous hotel in the grounds of the Palace de Versailles in Paris will be created from a disused mansion – the Hôtel du Grand Contrôle.

It looks amazing – and will probably cost an arm and a leg too I suspect.

Then I got to thinking, what hotels have I stayed in over the years – here’s some of my favourites.

1.  Savoy – London.  Yes, it was everything they say and then some.  The room itself was not huge or excessively opulent (but it was pretty bloody good), but then it was only a standard room, but the facilities, bars and restaurant were amazing.  Roof level swimming pool anyone?

2.  CompleatAngler, Marlow – UK.  My best friend got married there and it was something else.  We bumped into Piers Morgan at the reception and also had a chat with Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton (who were very lovely).  It did cost something disgusting like 360 pounds a night, but it was awesome and situated on the Thames, it was a lovely place to stay

3.  L’Imperial Palace, Annecy, France.  I stayed there for two nights on business and it was an amazing place with views across the lake to old Annecy town. If I remember rightly, the room was lovely and the restaurant was pretty special too.

4.  Sofitel, La Defense, Paris.  It’s not the most obvious choice, but it was a reaaaally good hotel, and the bed was the softest I’ve ever slept on.

5.  Erm. I honstly don’t know where to go from here – the rest fall into the decidedly average category.  I guess 2 weeks on an old school cruise ship (P&O Victoria) could be counted – that was a very cool experience – but the room was hardly palatial.  The food was amazing though.

So there you go.  These are the best places I’ve ever stayed.