Paris is a city that is enjoyed mostly by pretending you live in it. After visiting for the first time, you dream of one day having our own pied-à-terre here. But life and the sometimes eye-popping state of real estate here make it less than realistic. But to pretend to live here, well that’s my favorite way to be in it. I have my own little Parisian routine—pastry, espresso, cigarette—to start the day. And from there it’s all about how French can I make myself look for a week? Can I blend in and not look like a tourist? Create a totally different persona—dressing well, late lunch with wine, and a side of people-watching.
The key, though, is to have a place to return to at the end of the day that doesn’t shatter the fantasy. This is exactly the feeling in the recently renovated and reopened hotel NUAGE, a boutique spot that has been in the same family since the 1950s and is the latest selection for Room Key, The Daily Beast series on exciting new hotels.
Ambroise Tézenas
The hotel has a mere 27 rooms, and despite being located just off the high-end tourism madness of the lower Champs-Elysées, this property has been transformed into a sanctuary of calm and taste. In its previous life, the hotel was the Elysée Mermoz, and had the look of a small Parisian hotel that had been around for decades–dated wallpaper in the bedrooms, latticed atrium, old-fashioned bathrooms. With designer Jordane Arrivetz, the hotel has been transformed into an urban hideaway. To walk in its doors and into the light-filled atrium of travertine tile, light oak, beige furnishings, and stark, bare white walls feels like you’ve walked into the home of a friend who has dedicated this space to quiet relaxation. NUAGE isn’t French luxury that makes your spine stiffen.
The central feature here is the skylight ceiling which gives the hotel its name—nuage means cloud in French. It’s been owned by the same family for three generations, and not only are there guests who have returned constantly over the years but employees who worked for current owner Olivier Breuil’s father. In addition to the atrium, the ground floor contains a small library and a bar where the hotel hosts an afternoon tea.
Underground, a tubular space is devoted to the hotel’s breakfast room, where everybody’s favorite meal is available at all hours.
Ambroise Tézenas
Ambroise Tézenas
Once you go up to the rooms, spread out over five floors, you are greeted by spaces that have a Scandinavian feel—woven rugs on the floors, more light oak, a sprinkling of prints and photographs that give the neutral rooms some pop, pottery, and, most significantly, lamps. Special attention seems to have been paid to lighting here as the plethora of floor lamps, side lamps, and desk lamps provide a warm illumination that makes the room so much more pleasant and peaceful. In a true sign of how quiet and relaxing it was, I was actually able to get work done inside a hotel room.
It might be unique to me, but the cinema room truly was the cherry on top of the whole place. Perhaps literally as it is painted and accessorized totally in a deep red. One of my favorite things to do when I’m being a homebody is watch movies in our TV room. But old French films at your own private theater in Paris–can you really ask for more?
