Hôtel Le 10 Bis – 4*

REGION : Paris – 18th Arrondissement
ATMOSPHERE : City
STYLE : Boutique-hotel
CATEGORY : 4*
ROOMS : 21 rooms and 2 suites

Out of the shadows

This Parisian boutique-hotel has plenty to reveal. Right next to the Palais des Congrès and the Porte Maillot, a few minutes’ walk from the Champs-Élysées and the Louis Vuitton Foundation; practically on the same sidewalk as Paris’ greatest museums and monuments (Arc de Triomphe, Concorde, Musée d’Orsay, Jardin des Tuileries, Eiffel Tower, the Grand and Petit Palais…), Le 10bis is strategically nestled in the heart of the Ternes neighborhood and its fabulous Haussmann buildings…

AMONG THE SECRETS OF 10BIS DE LA RUE DU DÉBARCADÈRE, is its 17th Century activity as a brothel that used to be shared, in the shadows, by both nightcrawlers and the upper class. First a brothel, then a swingers’ club, for several decades the place became the stronghold of Lucienne Goldfarb, also known throughout all of Paris by the pseudonyms “Katia” and “Katia the Red.” The flamboyant patron was often described as an opera lover, a great friend of former minister Roland Dumas, and star informant of high-society’s social police. There are plenty of in-depth stories and books to be read about this special site: La Brigade mondaine by Claude Cancès, the former boss of the 36 quai des orfèvres, La Rouquine by Alphonse Boudard, and Politically incorrect by Roland Dumas.

TODAY, THE 10BIS NOW SHELTERS MUCH QUIETER NIGHTS, having undergone a soothing transformation led by architect Elsa Joseph. Coquettish and contemporary, the ensemble is dressed in deep blue and chaste beige. Between design details, shimmering velvet, plays of light, inviting seating and luminous claustra’s, the atmosphere is assertively intimate and profoundly virtuous. For the insatiably curious, the hotel is full of subtle and strong references to the past: sixties wall lamps, mirrors, ties, newspaper clippings, perfume bottles, snuffboxes… Some of you, perhaps familiar with the place, will even recognize a famous ceramic poodle in the cabinet of curiosities. The memory of an otherwise gallant time.

To do

HONESTY BAR – sip on a soft drink, coffee, or tea; all readily available to hotel guests

The surrounding area

• Running or walking in the Bois de Boulogne
• Visit the Jardin d’acclimatation
• Cultural life (Palais des Congrès, café-theater Le Grenier, salle Pleyel, Counterfeit Museum, Armenian Museum of France, Dapper Museum, Palais Galliera, Palais de Tokyo, Louis Vuitton Foundation…)
• Shopping