A Tourist in Paris: Beata Heuman’s Hôtel de la Boétie

This article first appeared in Mix Interiors #231

Words: Harry McKinley
Photography: Simon Brown

The English and the French have a complicated relationship – like siblings who sometimes bicker, sometimes compete, but ultimately share a close and enduring connection. That being said, when pitted against the many swish stays of Paris, it’s hard to imagine anyone was wooed by the faded, three-star Hôtel d’Angleterre Champs Elysees – which featured such quintessentially English design notes as plastic orchids and assorted Eiffel Tower paintings.

To the rescue Adrien Gloaguen, who has taken on the ultra-centrally located property and transformed it into the design-led Hôtel de la Boétie – part of his achingly zeitgeisty Touriste group. Featuring 40 guestrooms, a bijou lounge and open café and working space for guests, it now marries English whimsy and French cool; an idiosyncratic bolthole in the heart of the 8th.

“The hotel carries on the artistic legacy of the neighbourhood,” Gloaguen explains. “Henry James once lived at number 9 and Picasso had a home and studio at number 23 – only one door away from the gallery of his dealer Paul Rosenburg and the great photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, whose famous photo ‘Hotel court, rue de la Boetie 1953’ is showcased at Musée d’Orsay. We see the hotel as an extension of the creative tradition, using inspirations from the architecture and the history.”