Hotel Le Bellechasse

A custom-made hotel, in surroundings already very “couture” right in the middle of Faubourg Saint Germain district, whose aristocratic elegance inspired Proust, with a wealth of famous antique dealers and the Orsay Museum, facing the Louvre, with the Ministries, the Chamber of Deputies, the French Foreign Office ( Quai d’Orsay) and the embassies. It represents arts – from literature to painting including design, music, theatre, cinema – with its modern and contemporary art galleries, its exhibition halls, its bookshops and so many places typical of the pleasurable Parisian way of life : cafés, shops, restaurants where tradition meets with the modernist. Christian Lacroix explains : “in my opinion, a hotel must reflect the character of the locality it is standing in and should represent “ a travel within the travel” while giving its own interpretation of the town, the district, the street it is open to. This hotel provides accommodation to the tourists in search of culture and exhibitions as well as making them feeling “at home” in a district essentially notorious between politics and business. With regards to the street of Bellechasse , one must think in terms of the 19th Century aesthetics of the Museum of Orsay, with the old furniture of famous antique dealers, with the neo-classicism of architectures neighbourhood and also with the art galleries, contemporary furniture and an unconventional way of life which were, since always, the axies of Faubourg Saint-Germain whose charm, force and elegance come from this balance between tradition and audacity, passed and present, upper middle class and dolce vita, symbolizing for me the spirit of Paris On reflexion we proportioned all these ingredients in function of all the places to be re invented. The reception mirrors this conception immediately by showing the blending between “ the old and the new” and with just a hint of the future. The lobby-bar overlooking on to the patio-garden, plays on to the glass window and the mirror, the bright colours, the white mouldings, the wood storage and the blending styles of cosy furniture. The staircases are scattered with graphic images and covered with bright red carpet, the walk-ways are softened by round partitions, the ceilings are black and on the ground an exclusive carpet which I drew with strokes of black-ink on to a white back-ground. The colour allows to give rythm distinguishing floor levels from each other. Generally monochrome, as well as camaïeu, sometimes coordinated to printed wall-paper.