|
:: Panoramic Views
|
|
|
|
‘Thank heavens for the English’ was the very un-French observation. The two hotels, Le Marquis and Le Walt, represent a considerable investment in the French capital's hotel stock for a small group of individuals, and it was English weekenders that were the subject of the heartfelt approval. Their return to the Parisian scene was driving the high occupancy levels of these two small (30 - 36 bedroom) hotels.
Fighting for planning in any city can be a problem. Rebuilding behind a listed façade provides a solution – albeit as expensive as building from scratch. Le Marquis was just such a ‘gut job’ as the owner described it – the historic Georges Haussman façade preserved whilst all behind was completely demolished and rebuilt. Here is a modern interpretation of the traditional French hotel.
 |
| Marquis has romantic pink chiffon over the bed. Rollover to see a bedroom at Le Walt, with use of paintings as bedheads. In both cases bedroom lighting is skillfully done. |
|
|
|
 |
| The bedroom carpet meets the corridor carpet with no threshold, providing a frisson of color clash. Rollover to see the bathroom with power shower efficiency, well lit and laid out |
|
|
Whilst it's sibling Le Walt sits more noisily atop a Metro station on Avenue Le Motte Piquet, Le Marquis is a short walk from the Eiffel Tower on the left bank in a quiet residential street. Convenient parking, once you have figured out the one-way system (or do as I did and leave the complexity to your navigator to work out) lies across the road and the location is everything one would imagine from a small Parisian boutique hotel. Unlike London, Paris appears relatively unchanging and the charm of French life is all here – the tree lined boulevards and the café’s with their arrogantly rude waiters who will tell you how you can have your steak cooked – although they have progressed to doing it in English, which they notably were not doing fifteen years ago. Maybe they need the business, for the French hotel market has still not recovered from the slump after 9/11 and lags behind Britain and other European countries in occupancy rates.
Paris is a beautiful city with an excellent public transport system but my joy is to walk it, and walking from the Marquis was a delight. The cobbled street was largely empty even during the working day, apart from the inevitable parked cars. The street architecture was almost a caricature of Frenchness, a caricature that in some ways has permeated the interior. Pink sheers act as drapes across windows and bedheads, carpets are woven with a soft brown dappled effect – not a stripe quite, almost like a zebra hide in chocolate and cream, furry cushions on the bed and more pink chiffon/sheers draped at the bedhead turning a bedroom into a boudoir.
|
