QUINTESSENTIALLY LOVELY, Paris is the city of dreams. Take, for instance, 72 hours in a suite at the Crillon on the Place de la Concorde. That legendary hotel recently offered a three-night package, including airport transfers, breakfast, a tour of the premises and lunch at its vaunted Les Ambassadeurs restaurant. The price: $30,000.

At about the same time, six of the city's top hotels, including the Crillon, were fined for price-fixing. If that doesn't take the stars out of your eyes about Paris, nothing will.

Far better, I think, is to pursue a different, but wholly achievable dream, set in a small, sweet, ivy-covered Paris budget hotel, from which you may see Notre-Dame Cathedral or the twinkling lights of the Eiffel Tower if you stand, craning your neck, at the window.

Hôtel Langlois

The area around St. Trinité isn't one of the city's grandest neighborhoods, but it can boast a budget hotel of considerable distinction. The Hôtel Langlois is in a building from the 1870s with much of its 19th century style intact, thanks to owners who preferred to refurbish the hotel's Belle Époque architectural detail instead of gutting the place, modernizing and adding rooms at the expense of space.

The lobby has an elaborately carved wooden archway and wide, graceful staircase that spirals around an old cage elevator. Even the landings are decorated with antique furniture and art, as are the rooms, mostly doubles priced from $125. Those on the sixth and seventh floors retain their 19th century character and have Paris rooftop views. Some have fireplaces, neoclassical statuary and built-in wood armoires that take up an entire wall. On other floors, there is a mélange of styles such as Art Deco and midcentury modern, but all the furnishings are authentic, selected with a connoisseur's eye.

Other, more practical, details please as well: the four-day weather report offered to guests, uninflated mini-bar prices (for instance, a bottle of mineral water costs $1.80, about the same as on the street) and $12 breakfasts brought to the rooms for no extra service charge.

Up until five years ago, the Langlois was the Hôtel des Croisés. But then Jonathan Demme shot part of his "Charade" remake there, calling it the Langlois, and the name stuck.

Hôtel Langlois, 63 Rue St.-Lazare; 011-33-1-48-74-78-2
http://www.hotel-langlois.com ; doubles from $125.