The Best Hotels Near Luciole Restaurant, by the Record

A two-room bed and breakfast on the top floor of a building that's been around forever, in a mountain town that produces a remarkable share of France's pastis and absinthe. One room leans historical, the other contemporary, both decorated with an eclecticism that stops just short of chaos. It's a genuinely small operation, so if both rooms are booked, that's it. Pontarlier sits midway between Basel and Geneva, which helps explain the clientele.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Le Fooding Le Fooding Guide

The balconies face Lake Geneva and the Alps, so the view does most of the decorating. This grand lakeside hotel in Lausanne has been around forever, and it leans into the chandeliers-and-marble register without apology. Rooms are spacious, beds are serious, and the spa and two pools give you reasons not to leave the property. A Forbes Four Star. The Pic restaurant handles French cuisine if you do venture downstairs.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

A 19th-century cloister in the old heart of Besançon, converted into a boutique hotel with just enough monastic bones left to feel like somewhere, not just somewhere nice. The name means "wild," which the nuns who preceded the guests would find baffling given the spa. Rooms look out over the citadel and the river, and there's a restaurant downstairs for the nights you'd rather not wander far.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels