Paris Scenery

What to see, do and eat in Paris during fashion week.

In the heart of the 18^th arrondissement, Philippe Maidenberg designed the quirkily decorated and comfortable 44-room Hôtel Joyce. It boasts a glass-roofed breakfast room equipped with Fifties furniture and airplane-style seats. Hôtel Joyce offers organic breakfast and bath products from the N-Ki brand. Rooms run from 160 euros, or $217, for a single room to 380 euros, or $514, for a suite.

TRIANGLE D’OR HOTEL

Musical Boutique hotel

Rickie Lee Jones. Archie Shepp. Jacques Higelin. Manu Katché. MC Solaar. It could be the poster for a summer festival. Here, it is the reverse guest book of a decoration idea created by interior designer Philippe Maidenberg, who is behind numerous Parisian hotels, including Le Six, rue Stanislas, le 123, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré and the Joyce. Boldly, Philippe went to ask these artists, singers and jazzmen to get involved in the decoration of this 3-star hotel judiciously situated at voice range of the Olympia concert hall. Everything from the furniture to the ambiance, reminds the stage atmosphere, the backstage, the gigs, the dressing rooms or the studios. Up to the point where Maidenberg drew a stage tool as requested by saxophonist Archie Shepp, manufactured by the Pleyel workshops. No wrong note in the decor: the melodious graphics have been designed by his brother Michel Maidenberg, Creative Director of the Faux Q magazine.

JOYCE HOTEL

Amusing charm

With seventeen hotels in Paris, The Astotel Group is one of the most enterprising of the space, targeting the convenient market of the 3-star hotels, for which the group expands the category in three levels to better distinguish its concepts. The Joyce, inaugurated in 2009, is in the “prestige” category, on paper at least, while its decor and services make it an amusing address full of malicious decoration ideas signed by Philippe Maidenberg, who already accounts for several hotels for this very chain. Common themes: Paris, with an Eiffel tower upside-down, and the trompe-l’œil with its headboards drawn on the walls. Fasten your seat belt for breakfast time, in your car seat that includes the headrest. Just opposite, the Monterosa (30, rue La Bruyère. IXth. Tél.: 01 48 74 87 90), 36 bedroom hotel by Astotel also designed by the architect.

LANGLOIS HOTEL

Charm

Charming Langlois, ex-Hôtel des Croisés. How many times have we walked passed it swearing to walk in one day. It was not until the new VU gallery opened, in the former private mansion of the painter Paul Delaroche, just opposite, that we decided. And right there we experienced the delicious shock of time travel: a decorative mix of all Belle époques — the hotel opened in 1896 —, the inside appeals to the visitor with its passé charm, its ambiance of another era, kept with a smile. The “Nouvelle Athènes” revived.

The lady at the entrance gladly shows us around: the elevator, the corridors, the pastel 1930’s and 1950’s in the large bathrooms, the lamps… Which button did we push to find ourselves in 1955? Just add Françoise Arnoul in her nightie and you are reenacting a part of  La chatte sort ses griffes. Plan to sleep there and bring with you a book by Léo Malet. Boulevard… bones, for instance. The plot of these “New Mysteries of Paris” is taking place in the 9th arrondissement. Very suitable.

Philippe Maidenborg, the decoration expert

April 2010

BIG CHILD. The latest hotel everyone is talking about in Paris, the Joyce Hotel: that’s him. Le Six in the 6^th arrondissement: him again. The next hotel to be built in the Parisian “Gold Triangle” with music as its theme and concept will also be designed by Philippe Maidenberg. And on top of that he creates furniture…

He is a designer, he builds hotels, he creates furniture  – among which beautiful office desks he will deliver you for 450 € a piece – and he is an architect. His mother once suggested he became one: “Why not? Nothing wrong with becoming an architect!” His older brother chose photography and he chose to have a bit of fun. He wandered into the world of design without suffering the pressure of any diktat and now works on hotel projects with an almost juvenile perspective that can help conceive absolute treasures such as the Joyce Hotel in the 9^th arrondissement.

It took a long time to do the building, fourteen months of both complicated and exciting work for the hotel’s owners he knows well and who had been following him for some time. Philippe Maidenberg is passionate about everything: music, design, fabrics, bedheads have no secret for him and of course the stage. It is something to see him talk about his latest conversation with Riche Lee Jones for his next Parisian project, close to the famous Olympia Concert Hall, where a musical artist will inspire each room.  He thinks the project over, turns every idea upside down in his head, talks about his life as an architect with a constant and delicate smile on his face. He is very straightforward and talks about the “Parigot” (typical Parisian) side of his personality, with a Russian and Polish father and a Turkish mother. His grandparents were in Israel and he has childhood memories from these times that mean a lot to him.  “When I’d go to the beach, my cousins would go to the army”, those were strong visions that built his convictions as well as his destiny.

Everybody in his line of work agrees on saying that his greatest strength is his loyalty to the people he works with. They are mostly the same from one project to another, thus offering a genuine guarantee to his clients. There is no “army” in his head office but only four people who help him with his projects as he has more and more of them. Philippe Maidenberg is very much in demand because he is audacious where some designers are enclosed in more repetitive schemes and would never try anything different. Or wouldn’t anymore. He doesn’t bother with those kinds of questions. He feels the need to put himself entirely into a project like he does when he designs furniture. The office desks he created have a strong visual design also showing a playful approach.

It even gets a bit crazy sometimes. He can mix up, add up, work up the lamps, his seats are very amusing and his leather chairs “Flower Leather” seem to play with time. He does a few houses every now and then but it’s not a “quest” of his. “What I prefer in the end are the common areas of a hotel. That’s where the fun is. There is no limit. Apart from the budget of course. In the bedrooms, people are meant to sleep in them so it’s more restricted.” Let’s be honest, he had a pretty good time working on the Joyce Hotel because he followed every step of the construction with much precision but also a sense of improvisation “because you discover a place differently time after time”. Just like him…

His best achievement in our opinion is the Joyce Hotel in the Pigalle area of Paris. He manages to fit his creativity into busy areas, into the common quarters of hotels and tries to keep things surprising by mixing up his choices in furniture. And when it seems that all the elements can’t fit together… well they do.

JOYCE HOTEL

Amusing charm

With seventeen hotels in Paris, The Astotel Group is one of the most enterprising of the space, targeting the convenient market of the 3-star hotels, for which the group expands the category in three levels to better distinguish its concepts. The Joyce, inaugurated in 2009, is in the “prestige” category, on paper at least, while its decor and services make it an amusing address full of malicious decoration ideas signed by Philippe Maidenberg, who already accounts for several hotels for this very chain. Common themes: Paris, with an Eiffel tower upside-down, and the trompe-l’œil with its headboards drawn on the walls. Fasten your seat belt for breakfast time, in your car seat that includes the headrest. Just opposite, the Monterosa (30, rue La Bruyère. IXth. Tél.: 01 48 74 87 90), 36 bedroom hotel by Astotel also designed by the architect.

The Night of Design

Between hotel chains’ standards and luxury hotels, small charming hotels flourish everywhere in Europe. Their rooms are design gems that feel homely… Just more beautiful. Follow us for a Parisian tour. 

Their names? Joyce, Jules, Recamier, Fontaines du Luxembourg, Petit Paris. Their addresses? Given through word-of-mouth. Their customers? Those for which a hotel is above all a house that cannot be conceived without a soul. And this new phenomenon bears fruit as discreet stars, provincial notables or high net worth people from the Emirates, tired of the flamboyant abundance from the grandest luxury hotels, attend them more and more. It says it all. Of course here, the service is not the one of a 5-star. So what? Other criteria compensate this apparent lack – charm, discretion, intimacy, and a way to make you believe that you are somewhere else while being home once you passed the front door.

The reasons of this delicious change of scene? A familiar object, a singular fragrance, a light, a hearth fire, a designer’s piece of furniture, the color of a fabric. Farewell then to the tasteful monochrome, the perpetual beige-grege-white triptych, the minimalist, clinical and functional furniture, the aseptic lights of the big hotel chains. Welcome to color, psychedelic patterns and designers furniture. Here, emotions prevails over the hype, the detail over the cliché, the Bohemian feel over the politically correct.

To follow this new philosophy, the decoration has been entrusted to the the flower of today’s interior design. Not necessarily Jacques Garcia, Pierre-Yves Rochon, Ed Tuttle, Didier Gomez, Alberto Pinto… But the others, the rising stars – Sybille de Margerie, Tristan Auer, Fabrice Ausset, Jean-Louis Demot… The relief, in a way! These young and trendy designers bank on other criteria – poetry, memory, nerve… To attract new customers without turning off the regulars. “The idea is to offer a sort of discovery, another type of stay, an experience without pretension” says Fabrice Ausset, decorator of the Fontaines du Luxembourg, in Paris.

Up to the decorators then to give meaning to the patina of a wall, the texture of a material, a fabric, to work with the best artisans, to bargain-hunt the objects or draw furniture that fit into an epoch. In a word, to avoid the total look. “I favored a private feel for the place”,says Jean-Louis Deniot, decorator of the Racamier in Paris. “The hotel is designed like a private city house.” In a nutshell, decorators put in as much passion as if they created a 5-star hotel. Even better, their own house. “The danger is to fall in the historical reconstitution and the pastiche”, says Sybille de Margerie, decorator of the Petit Paris, a hotel in the 5th arrondissement where the latest creations of Lehevre or Pierre Frey stand alongside the bespoke contemporary furniture and pictures of Paris by Roman.

In most of these new hotels, the rooms are often confined and the bathrooms drawned perfectly straight. For this, there is no alternative – demolish and rebuild entirely. In concrete terms, it means to change the volumes, rework the lights, add a small breakfast room where there is not often a restaurant room – a secondary detail considering these hotels are mostly located in neighborhoods with lots of good restaurants. However, all of today’s high tech paraphernalia is there. They may have a few stars less than luxury hotels, the services are top-notch – air conditioning, wifi access, room service, gym and sometimes massage, and an attention to energy savings, like the Joyce Hotel, in Paris, which uses low consumption light bulbs, equips its taps with devices that limit the flow of water, and offers organic breakfasts.

But the secret of these new places also lies in the very particular relation between owner and decorator, to whom they generally give carte blanche. And Philippe Maidenberg, decorator of the Joyce, confirms it: “It is undoubtedly the most personal hotel I have designed” he says. “I have always had a very strong complicity with my client. We have worked together for fifteen years.” So it is normal then that there are good vibes on these establishments that are treated as personal stories. “Each project is different”, says Sybille de Margerie. “Each site is unique. It is all a bit like haute couture.”

[…] [One finds a] sense of cross-breeding in the Joyce Hotel (Astotel group) situated rue La Bruyère in the 9th arrondissement. Facing the reception desk made of Eiffel towers designed by the hotel’s architect Philippe Maidenberg – who studied with Ieoh Ming Pei for the Grand Louvre renovation), a long padded seat in white leather stands alongside a 1960’s clock by George Nelson manufactured by Vitra, an African armchair by Cheick Diallo, a parquet lighted with fiber optics. “It was a complete refurbishment” admits the decorator. “The decoration however, I would say it is made on the inspiration of the moment.”

Despite that, harmony is at the heart of the subtle demonstration where nothing is trivial. In the breakfast room lightened by a glass roof, old cars’ seats face totally new Thonet armchairs, the walls are decorated with leaning mirrors, just to lose balance, and the great cloud-shaped chandelier -by Vialuce- adorns the whole with an opalescent light. Same sense of detail for the 44 rooms on which blows the spirit of Fornaseti and whose furniture is made by Patricia Urquiola or Philippe Starck. Passionate with couture, music and theater, Philippe Maidenberg even took inspiration from one of his Prince of Wales-patterned trousers to design the carpet. […]

123 Sebastopol Hotel

November 2013

Located near the Grand Rex, this new hotel pays tribute to cinema and its artists. Each floor is named after one of the famous comedians and directors who participated in the design of the bedrooms, under the direction of designer Philippe Maidenberg: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Claude Lelouch, Agnès Jaoui, Danièle Thompson, Elsa Zylberstein, to name a few… And under the glass ceiling, enjoy the restaurant modeled after a film set. Action!

123, bd de Sébastopol, Paris 2^nd, +33 (0)1 40 39 61 23

There is joy in the Joyce Hotel

April 2010

The Architect and Designer Philippe Maidenberg disseminated numerous good decoration ideas in this freshly inaugurated hotel. 3 pieces of evidence – Ancient luxury car leather seats as breakfast room chairs, a black and white drawing to represent a library on the walls of a room and the bespoke carpet, inspired by the Prince of Wales’ own trousers pattern! From 160€ per night.

Hôtel Joyce, 29 rue la Bruyère, Paris 9^e

Interior Designer, Renovation’s keystone

March 2010. “Our job could be compared to what a film director does” says interior designer Jean-Philippe Nuel. His colleague Philippe Maidenberg then adds “a form of staging indeed but always within technical regulations”.  Nevertheless, creativity remains their first quality. They truly are today’s trend makers in the hotel business. “Nothing is ever that definite, says Laurent Moreau, but it seems like light colours are the trend at the moment in renovation work”. Some recent works were designed by Carole Picard for the Asset Management Group, such as “Le BLC” in the 11^th arrondissement of Paris, where everything is white.

Organising Space

Beyond the question of colours and material, some would rather talk about space and organisation. “The real trend at the moment in renovation work is reorganising space Jean-Philippe Nuel claims. There is a parallel between daily life and life in a hotel so I try to transpose it when I work on the layout of a building”.  On the other hand, the aesthetic aspect of our work is important but it is only the tip of the iceberg: “20% of our work, Laurent Moreau reckons”. Regulations are more and more important whether environmental or related to security or accessibility. Moreover, communication between different administrations makes the architect’s work even more difficult. “Regulations regarding the environment – such as the HQE – is something we all follow and respect and all buildings are supposed to be carbon free, underlines Jean-Philippe Nuel. But it can get tricky when we don’t renovate the entire building to take into account certain aspects of those regulations such as saving water, energy, garbage…”.

Dealing with constraints

“The most important constraints are the accessibility requirements as we’re often asked to go beyond regulation” says Philippe Maidenberg. How is it possible to open 90 cm doors in a concrete building to follow regulation?
Special dispensations can be granted but there are no guarantees. The insurance policies architects subscribe to often keep them away from such problems and architects often ask for advice from independent control boards. Another frustration point for interior designers is the question of lights. Because of the new regulations, hotels need a certain amount of lux, light power, per square meter. Once again, some will do the testing by themselves with the use of specific tools where others will prefer an expert’s opinion. But all agree with Christine Gero when she claims that “hotels are all about the atmosphere and too much light can spoil that atmosphere”. And even though LED lights are everywhere now, they have two weak points: they don’t have enough light power and are still expensive. And that’s without considering the difficulty of recycling these energy-saving lamps.

Renovation Costs

But in the end what is more daring for an architect than refurbishing an old building to give it another function? When an old prison, empty courthouse or abandoned hospital is turned into a hotel, the architects from Bâtiments de France (Buildings of France) are the ones to contact.

In Nantes for the transformation of the old courthouse into a Radisson hotel “there weren’t that many problems, says Jean-Philippe Nuel, because the building was from the 19^th century whereas for the Hôtel-Dieu in Marseilles, built during the 18^th century, we had to keep the staircase and the front of the building.” These renovations are often very costly but “the important part is to know what we will put inside, acknowledges Laurent Moreau.” For a 3 or 4 star hotel with a 50 to 100 bedroom capacity, a complete renovation – including the plumbing, bathrooms, space organisation, interior design, security, accessibility and decoration – would cost between 70.000 and 100.000 euros per room (120.000 € for a 4 star hotel) the five architects agree. Without their fees.

Of course, it’s a lot less when it’s eco-chic. “The worst uncertainty for us as far as renovation is concerned says Jean-Philippe Nuel, are the floors and the floor surfaces. We must always anticipate with another specific cost estimation we might have to use.” Interior designers are all about adjustments as well as creating living spaces. Their purpose is to sublimate the hotel’s wishes while sticking to its needs and respecting the establishment’s vocation. They are also the necessary guarantors to avoid any catastrophe due to heavy works.

The Taste of others

By Cécile Pivot. Photos: Anne-Emmanuelle Thion

Philippe Maidenberg headed the refurbishment, architecture and interior design of the 123 Sébastopol****, a true anthem to cinema. At every floor, one can find beautiful tricks to seize. Action!

Not far from the Gaîté Lyrique concert hall, the rue Montorgueil and the Marais area, the 123 Sébastopol barely open its doors but it already has its aficionados. Only the outside signs and the 20-seat private cinema room remain to be done before the hotel is finished. Each of the six floors is dedicated to a leading figure of the cinema world. In the credits: Elsa Zylberstein, Danièle Thompson, Claude Lelouch, Ennio Morricone, Jean-Paul Belmondo and the Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri couple.

All of them more or less committed, their own way. Jean-Pierre Bacri gave his consent but let Agnès Jaoui handle the project. Some gave rolls of films, decoration items, film scripts, pictures taken on film sets that have then been enlarged to become wallpapers. Others greatly participated in the choice of colors, patterns, furniture…

Soon, the hotel architect and designer Philippe Maidenberg will start a project dear to his heart, a new hotel with music as a main theme (the first of its kind was the Triangle d’Or, completed in 2011),  rue Sainte-Anne in Paris. He hopes that Peter Gabriel, Youssou N’Dour, Sting, Iggy Pop, Izia Higelin and Kate Bush will join the project.

Panache and lightness

At the time, the painter Jean-Jacques Henner took as a model a young girl nicknamed Joyce, Georges Sand and Frédéric Chopin were lovers and Alexandre Dumas wrote in an appartment decorated by Eugène Delacroix. This neighborhood was the one of the “Nouvelle Athènes”, a name chosen by journalist Dureau de la Malle, as the place was filled with references to the Greek Antiquity and art in general. It is this bohemian and artsy spirit, not without a hint of modernity, that architect and designer Philippe Maidenberg injected into the latest project of the Astotel Group, the Joyce Hôtel.

The reception desk is made of an assembly of tiny lacquered Eiffel Towers, 3 clocks designed by George Nelson in the 50’s give the time you want – Paris, Somewhere, Moon – and an African armchair by Cheick Diallo, that’s the preface. A glimmering parquet leads to a parlor and a shiny room overhung by a gigantic glass roof where a fortune cloud lords it over… In this room adorned with salvaged Rover leather seats, screens showing passing clouds, walls of soliflores and leaning mirrors, the impression clarifies and it is exquisite. The designer evidently enjoyed it. It is the amusement of a creative who would look at the world through the lenses of entertainment and stageplay.

For the rooms, the spirit is the same: on the walls, the headboards and the book-filled shelves have been made to measure on the computer and most of the furniture has been designed by Philippe Maidenberg, notably the impeccable desks and the carpet created from a scanned Prince of Wales pattern suit. Let’s not forget the prestigious signatures: beautifully incongruous mirrors by Mosh-Umbra, poetic tiles in the bathrooms by Fornasetti, bedside tables by Conran… If it is a joke it is very inspired! It is all of good taste, the one of accurate mixes and subtle balance of tones and colors. Enter a room with a view on the Parisian rooftops, certainly small but cosy, and relive with panache and lightness, in a malicious blink of an eye, the Paris of today and yesterday.

Fabienne Dupuis

Paris at the beach

December-January 2009-2010

At the entrance, the 200 miniature Eiffel towers that constitute the desk set the humorous tone imagined by Philippe Maidenberg, an architect already known for several hotels with the same group. Then, the ipe parquet and the carpet, sprinkled with fiber optics, the Designers Guild sofas and the big Jieldé in chrome sow a bit of excentricity all the way to the amusing breakfast room beneath a glass roof: armchairs made of 4×4 seats saved from the junkyard, mirrors, a fake plant-covered wall and a huge winding cotton wool cloud. With the starred staircase, the bedrooms covered up with trompe-l’oeils, Fornasetti tiles, Prince de Galles carpet… Humor sets the tone of these 44 rooms. From 139 € to 229 €.

Maisons éphémères

Trois horloges au design 1950 rythment l’heure du Joyce Hôtel la première indique celle de Paris, la deuxième marque le temps de Somewhere. La dernière, Moon, est dans la lune. Bienvenue dans le monde de Philippe Maidenberg.

Petit garçon, Philippe Maidenberg a beaucoup voyagé, entre le Brésil, les Etats-Unis, le Portugal, Israël… Depuis, ce fils de tour-opérateur considère les hôtels comme « des maisons éphémères », des lieux où le confort doit tutoyer l’intimité sans se prendre au sérieux, où l’on se sent immédiatement bien. Pour lui, l’architecture est devenue une évidence, un outil passionnel, car « elle me permet de tout faire : un bar qui ressemble à une robe, un siège en forme de selle d’équitation. Je peux faire converser design vintage, meubles sur mesure et coups de cœur décoratifs, jouer avec la lumière ». Dans l’univers de ce créatif invétéré, l’humour n’est jamais bien loin.

« Il se passe des choses bizarres dans ma tête », reconnaît-il. Bizarres ? Comprenez : élégantes et vraiment nouvelles, comme cette idée de scanner son pantalon prince-de-galles qui deviendra moquette ! Ou imaginer une banquette faite d’une succession de sièges automobiles (anglais, s’il-vous-plaît !) courant sur huit mètres de long sous la verrière de l’hôtel. C’est ce foisonnement d’idées qui lui vaut la confiance de sa clientèle. Et sa formidable faculté à concevoir un monde confortable et familier qui l’a tout naturellement amené à se spécialiser dans la rénovation hôtelière depuis 1995.

Le bilan ? Onze hôtels à Paris, des chantiers en cours de réalisation et, bien sûr, des idées d’architecture joyeuse plein la tête. Depuis novembre, au Joyce Hôtel il nous régale de son subtil mélange d’émotions croisées et d’esprit. Un bel hommage a ce quartier de Saint-Lazare, historiquement connu pour sa profusion artistique.

Philippe Maldenberg en trois questions

Dans votre travail, avez-vous des maîtres ?

«  Sydney Pollack pour le spectacle et Frank Gehry pour l’architecture. Leur ouvre est pour moi une merveilleuse leçon, un cap à suivre. Ce sont aussi deux copains curieux du travail de l’autre, ils initient l’idée d’interactivité dans la création. »

Votre famille a-t-elle aidé votre parcours ?

« Certainement, consciemment ou pas. J’ai un grand-père russe, l’une de mes grands-mères est polonaise, l’autre turco-libanaise. Mon histoire est celle d’un juif errant qui s’intéresse à tout ce qu’il voit. Quant à ries frères, ils sont photographe, directeur artistique et inventeur… Imaginer, faire, c’est une histoire de famille I »

Quelles sont vos sources d’inspiration ?

«J’aime beaucoup l’univers de la couture : Paco Rabanne, lssey Miyake, les années 70, Paul Smith et Jean-Paul Gaultier. Ils sont libres, en dehors de toute tendance. »

L’univers de Philippe Maidenberg

Ludique, élégant, le monde décoratif de Philippe Maidenberg est tout à la fois. Confort douillet, design et humour s’associent pour créer une ambiance unique, intersidérale.

Joyce Hotel

Poétique, élégant et plein d’humour, le Joyce Hotel est un joyeux mélange de confort et d’esprit qui vient d’ouvrir dans le IXe arrondissement de Paris. Une banquette de 8m de long imaginée par l’architecte Philippe Maidenberg, composée de sièges automobiles, des carreaux de ciment anciens dans la grande verrière où l’on se retrouve pour les petits déjeuners ou pour boire un thé, un mur saturé de soliflores, un autre entièrement recouvert d’un tapis simulant le buis, des pois rouges accrochés à la façade, du design vintage, des pièces  uniques créations de l’architecte… C’est un voyage autour d’une déco inventive et décontractée. Chaque chambre a son habillage d’armoire en flanelle, têtes de lit dessinées. Un subtil métissage donne de l’allure au dernier-né du groupe Astotel. Un bel hommage à Joyce, modèle du peintre Jean-Jacques Henner, et à la fantaisie XIXe du quartier Saint-Lazare.

Lights, camera, action!

To decorate the 123 Sebastopol, new 4-star hotel on the Grands Boulevards in Paris, Philippe Maidenberg, architect and interior designer, played with the complicity of leading cinema figures: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Claude Lelouch, Danièle Thompson, Agnès Jaoui, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Elsa Zylberstein and Ennio Morricone. Each projected their own world on their own floor, writing the script of their lives. To ‘Bébel’, the macho thing, boxing. To Elsa, the mirrors, the furs… As for the public areas, bar, lobby, restaurant, they remind of a cinema hall, the stair with its red carpet covered in laurels reminds of the Cannes Festival. 63 bedrooms, from 280€.

A traditional-hype stay in Paris

July 2010

The latest Parisian hype: the Joyce Hotel. Enjoy this atypical address for fashionistas, with an Eiffel style glass roof and cute black and white bedrooms, all of them unique.

Le Joyce Hôtel. From 160 € / night. 29, rue La Bruyère.
Paris 9th. Tel: 01 57 07 00 01. www.astotel.corn/hotel-joyce-paris.php

Stylish stays

Élisabeth Cranck-Dumas, August-September 2010

IN A DECIDEDLY different but equally creative style, the Joyce is the newest fashionable place to stay in northern central Paris. The nerve center of the hotel is its spacious, airy breakfast room that juxtaposes fifties-inspired chairs with cushy automobile seats under a glass roof reminiscent of Gustave Eiffel. The quiet, mostly white rooms are filled with witty details, like photographic “bookcases” and decorative figurines from the Wooden Dolls series by Alexander Girard. The overall effect is simple, original and undeniably captivating.

The discreet charm of the Joyce Hotel

June 2010

Quietly nested in the theater area around the place Saint-Georges, there is a 44-room boutique hotel designed by architect Philippe Maidenberg: scarlet lamps, delicate trompe-l’œils around the beds, and lots of other poetic ideas that make you want to redecorate your home! To enjoy this 3-star charming hotel without sleeping there, try the breakfast (15€) under the glass roof, sitting on recycled Land Rover seats.

Joyce Hôtel

With a name inspired by the artistic gaiety which since the eighteenth century has been associated with the arts, the Joyce Hotel pays homage to the painter J-J Henner and Joyce, the model who inspired him. Owned by the Astotel group, the 44 rooms are the work of the designer and architect Philippe Maidenberg and each exudes a retro-futurist look while being eco-friendly and making use of renewable energy sources. The bed-heads are replaced by architectural drawings, the wardrobe doors covered in flannel designed by Jasper Conran for Designee’s Guild, the searing by Thonet and Lavenham is designed by Patricia Urquiola, while Fornasetti’s side tables will send you into the arms of Morpheus.

The Joyce, France

March 2010

Where? In Paris, in the 9th arrondissement, Saint-Georges neighborhood, 29 rue la Bruyère.

Project completion? Fall 2009.

What’s inside? Designer furniture (Starck, Dharma, Thonet), organic products by N Ki in the bathrooms.

We like? The committment to the environment, the breakfast room and its Eiffel style glass roof. The bedroom carpet created from a scan of the prince-of-wales pattern on the architect’s trousers.

The architect? Interior designer Philippe Maidenberg for the Astotel group. In the entrance, tiny Eiffel towers lacquered in white set the tone. Playful.

How many bedrooms? 44, all different.

Price? From 160 to 280 euros.

Joyce Hôtel, a model of committment for the environment

October 2010

The Joyce Hotel opened its gates in November 2009 in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The management agreed with architect Philippe Maidenberg to think of environment-friendly solutions. The Astotel Group wanted to open a new hotel in a spirit of environment-friendliness, by involving its teams. The reflection then started with Sophie Cortese, the group’s Director of Quality and Sustainable Development. The 44-room hotel should be granted the eco-label. 

Respect and aesthetics 

Thanks to a contract signed with EDF, the hotel contributes to the development of renewable energy sources with up to 50% of its electricity consumption, while all the light bulbs are low consumption. In the bathrooms for instance, where the light bulbs took quite some time to reach their maximum power, more efficient lightbulbs had to be found. “The most difficult part is to commit to sustainable development while keeping our aesthetical expectations.” said Sophie Cortese. In that spirit, IT devices have been granted the European label Energy Star and the TVs are also among those which consume the smallest energy resources.

Green products

The Joyce Hotel offers its clientele the range of N Ki organic products whose formulas have been labelled Ecocert and Cosmebio, with the preoccupation to replace packaged products by refillable soap and shower gel dispensers. All the hotel taps include foamers, and the toilet paper is made from recycled paper.

Awareness

The monitoring of the electricity and water consumption will be established, as well as a waste reduction plan that will apply to the rooms, which will get several dustbins for sorting waste. This, as well as the laundry and towels on-demand change are measures that involve both the client and the staff. The three employees in charge of housekeeping have been trained and use Ecocert-labelled environment-friendly products. Thus, a poster information campaign on these daily acts will be set in motion as soon as the hotel is granted its “Eco label”.

Organic breakfasts

For breakfasts, organic products are preferred, with bread and pastries from the organic baker Moisan and fair trade coffees and teas. Step by step, everything is put in place. For now, the clientele is very French but foreigners, especially Spaniards and Italians, also appreciate this little Parisian place whose rooms are priced from 160 to 280 euros. The Astotel Group wishes to continue on the environmental path for all of its hotels.

Joyce Hotel: chic design

April-May 2010

This 44-room 3-star boutique hotel just opened. Distinguishing features? A cheerful mix of comfort, elegance an wry allusions. As you walk in, the tone is set by the reception desk designed by Philippe Maidenberg with a montage of mini Eiffel Towers. There’s a superb seat inspired by a riding saddle, three clocks designed by George Nelsons in the 1950s and an African armchair by Cheick Diallo made especially for the hotel. You’ll find the same decidedly creative approach in the bedrooms. Very bright, they are all different in colors and furniture.