Destination Report: a design-led guide to Paris boutique hotels

Beata Heuman brings her fanciful aesthetic to the French capital

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.

Touriste tapped London-based Swedish designer Beata Heuman for the interiors, known for her colourful, charm-laden residential schemes. “All 40 rooms are designed using three different colour schemes: deep blue, biscuit and powder blue – one for every two of the six floors,” says Heuman. Aiming to bring a theatricality to the interiors, Heuman imagined each space almost as functional ‘stage sets’ – something perhaps most evident in the guestrooms, many of which feature exaggerated, patterned headboards inspired by the marble floor of Florence’s Medici Chapel. Checkerboard-tiled bathrooms are realised in dusty blues, pinks and yellow, while upper floors include cast iron balconies with views across central Paris.

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Clashing colours and loud prints reign at Hotel Les Deux Gares

Nestled in the 10th arrondissement, Hotel Les Deux Gares celebrates a Paris of the past under the direction of British designer Luke Edward Hall. Hall’s studio transformed a vacant five-storey building into a maximalist haven and a riot of colour, using an array of sumptuous textures to boot. Named after its position between Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est, the striking, 38-bedroom hotel opened its doors in October 2020 and has been delighting guests with its eclectic take on Art Deco ever since.

Visitors can expect plush sofas, silk armchairs, velvet fringe, bold artwork and chintzy patterned wallpaper, all in a variety of primary and pastel shades. Designed to resemble the home of a ‘Bohemian Parisian collector’, Hall isn’t afraid to clash patterns: in the hotel gym, vintage wooden exercise equipment is joined by a red checked floor and blue floral wallpaper, for a workout space that’s nothing if not unique. Over in the reception lobby, a velvet leopard print sofa sits atop chevron tiles and in front of pea-green walls.

MBDS offers a fresh take on Parisian salons with Le Grand Mazarin

In 2023, London and New York-based designer Martin Brudnizki (behind the opulent, Instagram-worthy interiors of private members’ club Annabel’s) opened two Paris hotels: La Fantaisie in the ninth arrondissement and Le Grand Mazarin in the Marais. It wasn’t meant to happen that way; both projects were started at different times, but fate had its own plans. “Of course, if you put them next to each other, they look completely different,” he says. “One is about looking out and the other is about looking in.”

Less pastoral than La Fantaisie (which was partly inspired by the Cadet brothers, former gardeners for Louis XIV), Le Grand Mazarin is instead a heightened spin on the classic Parisian salon, a place for the well-dressed or well read. Blending French classicism with a uniquely artistic play on style, color and materials, inside guests can expect lobster wallpaper, bespoke tapestries and Jacques Merle murals. Its restaurant, Boubalé, is helmed by culinary powerhouse Assaf Granit, inspired by Ashkenazi grandmothers and one of Paris’s hottest new dining spots.

Chloé Nègre’s Hôtel Beauregard channels Parisian residential charm

The fifth destination in Touriste’s expanding portfolio, Hôtel Beauregard Paris finds its home within a six-storey Haussman building in the 5th arrondissement. Once again offering its creative collaborators carte blanche, the hospitality group chose award-winning local designer Chloé Nègre to helm the interior design. Recognised for her timeless aesthetic and environmentally conscious approach, Nègre’s notable work includes the Hotel Bienvenue in Rue Buffault, and her latest partnership with Touriste was envisioned as an authentic, quintessentially Parisian stay for the avid traveler.

Rustic tapestries co-designed with the Pinton factory and a selection of vintage furniture (including rare chairs by architect Mario Botta) are contrasted with contemporary touches, such as stainless steel decor and pops of primary colour. Throughout, Nègre’s sustainable approach is evident with the use of reclaimed bathroom fixtures and recycled textiles, while in the lobby traditional architecture meets artistic flair with a hand-painted Trompe-l’oeil sky completed by artist Paulime Leyravaud. Tourists can also enjoy coveted views of the iconic Eiffel Tower in most of the hotel’s street-facing rooms, complete with retro furnishings and the obligatory fluffy white robe on hand for each guest.

Maison Proust captures the Belle Époque with 23 luxury suites

Tucked away on a quiet street in Marais is a restored, six-storey townhouse now home to Maison Proust: an alluring, 23-suite hotel devoted to the famous French author. Welcomed through an unassuming alcove reception, guests can start their stay in Paris with a tipple in two intimate, softly lit salons, one complete with crystal chandeliers, antique furnishings and plush banquette seating, and the other – boasting a starry domed ceiling with a gold leaf sun – concealed behind thick velvet curtains. As a luxury stay created for the book lover, these salons also neighbour an impressive library containing 1,200 rare leather-bound tomes predating Proust’s death in 1922.

Working closely with architect and interior designer Jacques Garcia, owners Yoni Aidan and Sylviane Sanz (founders of hotel group Collection Maisons Particulières) devoted each suite to a member of Proust’s legendary circle of friends, from Jean Coucteau to Napoelon’s niece, Princess Mathilde. Guests can discover an array of thoughtful details such as Jacques Garcia’s parchment and leather-inspired lampshades, which bear hand-written excerpts of Swann’s Way, or opt to relax in the Arabian-style spa, with ceramic tiles handcrafted by Moroccan artisans over the course of one year.