L’Hôtel, a well-kept secret in the heart of Saint Germain des Près.
Some time ago, we discovered a rare place in Paris. A hotel with mad charm, hidden, subtle and refined. We couldn’t resist sharing this discovery with you.
You’d pass by it almost unnoticed, unless you looked up at the silver-bronze ram fixed above the entrance. Beyond the two doors, the view opens onto a series of mysterious rooms. Nothing more is revealed. And so it is with those confidential addresses whispered in each other’s ears, to be shared behind closed doors or kept secret for as long as possible.
The location, in the heart of the capital’s finest art and antique galleries, is certainly not insignificant. A stroll up rue Bonaparte leads to the church of Saint Germain des Près and the Deux Magots and Flore cafés. At the end of rue des Beaux Arts, the Ecole des Beaux Arts displays its sculptural façade and courtyard, and a little further down on the right, the Seine, Quai Voltaire and the Louvre…
An unspoilt, luxurious and discreet place
Once you cross the threshold, Paris seems far away, yet so close. Right away, the magic happens. You feel welcomed, protected, almost at home. The feeling of plunging into a Francis Scott Fitzgerald novel hovers like a gentle embrace.
One of our most famous customers was Oscar Wilde, who found here a place to lick his wounds after years of imprisonment in England. At the end of his life, ill and abandoned by all, he never left his bed, and the royalties from his widely published novels were not even enough to pay his debts. In his room, a letter from the director at the time, Jean Dupoirier, asking him to pay his bills and toiletries, was placed under glass. “I’m dying beyond my means”, the writer would say the day he left this earth.
The room named after him, number 16, has a bow window opening onto a terrace that didn’t originally exist. On the wall, an emerald enamel fresco of peacocks is a replica of the one in his London dining room. The headboard, adorned with swans, adds to the poetry of the place.
Like any address that attracts the stars, L’Hôtel has welcomed numerous personalities from the worlds of art, cinema and show business, who have made this establishment, located in the heart of the capital and far from the glitz, their favorite Parisian resort. Mistinguett, Jean Cocteau, Jim Morrison, Jorge Louis Borges, Ava Gardner, Grace de Monaco, Liza Minelli, Salvador Dali, Nathalie Wood… and today, Annie Leibovitz, Monica Bellucci, Susan Sonntag… still find this preserved, luxurious and discreet place reassuring.
Un air de bel canto
Inside, time seems to stand still. The noise of the city lies behind, as if wrapped in gauze. In the lobby, hand-painted frescoes give the walls a bel canto air, while Napoleon III sofas upholstered in striped velvet sit alongside graceful neo-classical furniture. On the walls, engravings by Jean Cocteau diffuse their light waves. Gilded columns by Alain Pouliquen (who also worked on the Palais Garnier) punctuate the walls of the neoclassical atrium, which some tourists even dare to visit under the conniving eye of the concierge. Decorated on the top floor with a spectacular baroque mirror, this famous stairwell is a shaft of light punctuated by openings. As beautiful and dizzying as the interior tower of a Florentine palace. At the bar, bronze sconces diffuse a subdued light over walls clad in pleated taffeta. In this padded half-light, faces are smoothed, conversations are quiet and the hours become Proustian. It’s all a question of lighting, dosage and delicacy.
In the restaurant, natural light from a glass roof caresses the Empire tables and armchairs. In the evening, oriental lanterns descending from the ceiling cast a new saffron glow. Windows dressed in silk taffeta open onto a small outdoor garden, where a few tables are set up to enjoy the fine weather. A fountain, designed by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, murmurs in the garden. Time stands still. Close your eyes, dream and let yourself be invaded by the magic of the place…
A gourmet restaurant
Julien Montbabut has been exercising his talents since May 2011 at the Restaurant de L’Hôtel, a magical, refined setting for a cuisine that is no less refined. In March 2012, he was awarded his first Michelin star, enabling the restaurant to retain its distinction. A fine reward in the scheme of things, for this young 29-year-old chef who aspired to change with continuity when he took over the reins of the establishment in the spring of 2011. He brings a twist of modernity and a zest of lightness to his short seasonal menu. The team is dedicated to providing the best possible service to our customers and to the restaurant’s cuisine, which is enhanced by the beauty of the setting. The hotel is managed by the young and dynamic Julien Révah. After testing it, we can only recommend this place. In particular, the lunch menu at €45 (starter-main course or main course-dessert), or €55 (starter-main course-dessert) offers exceptional value for money.
Inner journeys
Since its inception, L’Hôtel has followed the rule of cultivating diversity. This principle is still applied today in the twenty rooms, all different, redecorated in 2000 by Jacques Garcia according to his favourite themes, a sense of theatricality and intimacy, orchestrated here with infinite delicacy. Each room contains a story, a novel, an adventure, a journey.
In the Pagoda room, with its walls adorned with bamboo moldings, Japanese furniture and red damask fabrics… the heady scents of Asia float through the air. In the Marco Polo room, another journey is offered. Monumental Chinese vases sit on either side of the window, along with two imperial chairs that look as if they’ve come from the Forbidden City. In the Viollet-le-Duc room, upholstered in purple-effect Genoa velvet, the medieval-style furniture recalls the 19th-century infatuation with chivalry. In the Mistinguett room, the walls are in trompe l’oeil and shagreen, while the sconces and bowls are by Lalique. The mirrored bed, dressing table and Art Deco clock, designed by Jean-Gabriel Domergue, belonged to the bedroom of the vivacious star of the Folies Bergères, in Bougival. In the Pierre Loti bedroom, take flight on a carpet from a thousand and one nights! There’s no mistaking the Ottoman-inspired drapes, Syrian furniture and arabesque cornices…
And the same modern comforts are everywhere, right down to the mahogany-furnished bathrooms, featuring an old-fashioned bathtub in an alcove, English silver-metal fittings and a separate shower. And since elegance here extends to the fragrances, the organic Green & Spring Bath & Body Products, developed exclusively by “A Curious Group of Hotels”, are displayed on the antique shelves.
L’ombre de la reine Margot
The site of L’Hôtel was once home to a pavilion that caused quite a stir. Built on the Pré aux Clercs allotment belonging to the monks of Saint Germain des Près, it was built to house Queen Margot’s secret love affairs. Twenty-six acres in all, where architect Jean Antissier created a palace with its entrance on rue de Seine. Today, only the chapel remains. When the queen died in 1615, the residence was sold. In 1640, the then non-existent Rue de Lille, Rue de Verneuil and Rue de Beaune were created. The future rue des Beaux Arts was also created. It would pass through the middle of the sovereign’s former garden, now a large overgrown park belonging two centuries later to the de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt family.
The first stones of the present building were laid in 1824, under the Restoration, around the tower. After becoming a travelers’ hotel, it was first called the Hôtel d’Allemagne, then the Hôtel d’Alsace, after the war with Prussia in 1870. Just under a hundred years later, in 1963, textile industrialist Edmond Dreyfus bought the building. He entrusted its management to Guy-Louis Duboucheron and its renovation to architect Robin Westbrook. The hotel became L’Hôtel.
A restaurant was created in the garden, and in 2000, Jacques Garcia was entrusted with the hotel’s decoration. With his talent as a historian and poet-set designer, he drew a line under the burdens of the past and plunged the place into today’s atmosphere. Today, the hotel is owned by Peter and Jessica Frankopan, founders of A Curious Group of Hotels in 2000.
The hotel is one of the few establishments on the Left Bank to boast a small five-by-three-meter swimming pool, deep enough to relax and swim against the current. It’s located in the basement, in 18th-century vaulted cellars treated like Roman baths. It is reserved for hotel guests, who also have access to a hammam and a full range of massages.
L’Hôtel
13, rue des Beaux-Arts
75 006 Paris
Tel. : 01 44 41 99 00
http://fr.l-hotel.com/
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