Le Bellechasse

Hotel description

It’s often a bit of a gamble commissioning boutique hotel interiors from fashion designers, but one thing you can almost always be sure of is that you won’t end up looking at the same tired minimalism you’ve already seen in a thousand other hotels. Extravagant materials, bold colors, quirky details and statements aplenty are pretty much the order of the day, and once in a while it all coheres into something remarkable and unique — certainly that’s the case with Christian Lacroix’s redesign for Paris’s Hotel Bellechasse.

Especially when it comes to Paris hotels we often find ourselves wondering why such a stylish city can’t let its hair down a bit. This place, however, will inspire no such complaints; the Bellechasse borders on the flamboyant, as a glance at the photos will tell you. It’s certainly not for traditionalists, or tourists in search of the typically Parisian; simply put it’s for people who don’t mind a room with extremely bold printed wallpaper, vertical arrow slits for windows, and a bathtub in plain view in the corner of the bedroom, where attempting to use the shower attachment would result in an aquatic disaster of near-Biblical proportions.

That sound you hear is the collective sound of virtually all our business-travel customers (and a sizable proportion of our shower-happy Americans) clicking their browser’s “back” button. Those of you who are still with us, however, will find a hotel that’s delightfully full of character, full of surprises, nearly as comfortable as can be (while stopping just short of out-and-out luxury) and with a fine location to boot, just a block from the Musée d’Orsay.