REGION : Paris 6th arrondissement
ATMOSPHERE : City
STYLE : Artists’ hotel-atelier
CATEGORY : 4*
ROOMS : 20 rooms
Members benefits
Breakfast for two + upgrade upon availability + early check in and late check out upon availability
Put on your best smile: we’ve found the artiest address in Paris! Head for the Left Bank, between Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Montparnasse. That’s where the aptly named Hôtel des Académies et des Arts is located, the latest addition to the remarkable Adresses Group collection, which also includes La Ponche, Monsieur Aristide and Monsieur George. Nestled in the 6th arrondissement, a stone’s throw from the Jardin du Luxembourg and opposite the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, once frequented by Buffet, Léger and Foujita, the place strives to recreate the hotel-atelier atmosphere of Belle-Époque Paris. In those days, the neighborhood was home to color merchants and trips to the Café de la Coupole, posing sessions with Zadkine, Mucha, Rodin, Claudel, Gauguin, and Modigliani, who lived on the street and worked on the top floor of the hotel.
IN THE 19th CENTURY BUILDING, the signatures have changed but the spirit remains. Like a patron of the arts, the 4* boutique-hotel exhibits and distributes, like a gallery, the paintings, sculptures, drawings, and ceramics made by contemporary artists. Some pieces are for sale, others, sketches, doodles, curiosities, populate the “café-atelier.” Temporary exhibitions are organized there, and plastic arts material is available, inviting visitors to express their talents. All around, the white tiled walls, a nod to the rough surfaces of artists’ studios, serve as a showcase for the original furniture, lights, tables, and mirrors designed by the Lizée Hugot architectural firm especially for the premises. The ensemble is chic, bohemian, eclectic.
ON THE CEILING, PASTEL FRESCOS by Franck Lebraly evoke surrealists and cubists, Sonia Delaunay or Pablo Picasso, whose themes are repeated throughout the ten rooms “tattooed” by the artist, in the spirit of Cocteau. The rest of the decoration, all in sobriety, does not try to fit a mold, nor does it follow fashion. Not really academic, the scenography is rather a call to let your creativity run free and start with a blank canvas. The profiled, shaped and sculpted wood responds to stainless steel, oak alcoves sometimes serve as headboards and the walls are studded with nails where you can dry your paintings. Two rooms, out of the twenty that the establishment counts, benefit from a green terrace while those of the sixth floor open on the roofs of Paris. The view and the light are superb. Now close your eyes and dream of Modigliani.
ARTS – Exhibitions and curations punctuate the life of the hotel, which also offers, in partnership with the Académie de la Grande Chaumière located just across the street, to attend advanced or introductory courses in applied arts (drawing, sketching, sculpture, photography…).
HONESTY BAR – Travelers and local artists meet here for tea, kombucha or Kevin Lacote’s delicacies (cakes, financiers…).
WELLNESS – In the basement, a relaxation and massage room run by Le Tigre Yoga Club offers on-demand treatments and individual yoga classes.
