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