Hotel Jules - Paris

Grace Leo is a name synonymous with high-end hotels. Over her twenty year career, she has created some twenty projects in various capacities as operator, designer, marketeer and ‘creative consultant’. There have been luxury resorts in glamorous destinations such as The Cotton House in Mustique, The Guanahani in St Barts and The Royal Riviera in St Jean Cap Ferrat. In Paris, she created a trio of seminal ‘design’ hotels – The Montalambert, The Lancaster, and The Bel Ami. Elsewhere, projects have included U2’s The Clarence, in Dublin, and the Bairro Alto in Lisbon.

It’s an eclectic portfolio, but all of these hotels have been exclusive, expensive, and exquisitely imbued what has been described in the past as ‘a touch of Grace’.

‘Affordable,’ however is not a word that would immediately spring to mind when describing any of them. So it comes as a surprise to find GLA’s latest Parisian project not on the Champs-Élysées or Place de la Concorde, but nestled in the up-and-coming SoPi (South of Pigalle) district of the 9th arrondissement.

Hotel Jules is the first in a new line of “Casual Chic” hotels in the GLA portfolio, characterised by its funky, retro design, old-fashioned homeliness and reasonable rates, rather than the restrained elegance for which she is best known.

As Grace Leo explains: “My expertise and experience has thus far been focused on the creation and repositioning of upscale luxury properties. When I was asked by my investor partners to take over a 100-room property in the authentic 9th district of Paris, I was both excited and intrigued by the challenge of creating a new genre of hotels which is stylish and innovative, totally in sync with the neighbourhood, and yet priced sensitively to reflect current economic conditions.”

Having accepted the challenge, she enlisted designers Tristan Auer and Frederic Sicard of IZEU, to transform the property in a deliberate mix of styles spanning the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies.

The project team have taken their inspiration from François Truffaut’s cult 1962 movie ‘Jules et Jim’, to evoke the carefree bohemian feel of post-war France. “My intentions,” says Leo, “were to create a casual meeting place that is effortlessly cool, funky and chic at the same time, yet avoiding the pitfalls of the recent generation of “design hotels’ which have an attitude and predictable decorative clichés.”

The hotel is conveniently set near the ‘Bobo’ (bohemian bourgeoisie) district of Montmartre, with its vintage linen, clothing and jewellery boutiques, family run food shops, and markets on one side, and Paris’ famous department stores, Galeries Lafayette and the Printemps, on the other. It is just ten minutes from the Eurostar terminal at Gard du Nord.
Despite the “value for money” rates there has been no stinting on style nor quality of product. Guests enter a lobby with reflective pillars sat beneath a quirky ceiling feature of circular mirrors. A long, cream leather banquette, inspired by the seating of a Fifties Cadillac, stretches along one wall, leading to the reception area. The reception desk, like many of the wardrobes and cabinets in the bedrooms, is a formed from an array of vintage travelling cases framed in studded black leather.
Opposite the reception desk is a Seventies style pod comprising two white globes – one housing a seat, the other an internet screen, where guests can sit and surf the web or access emails. Juxtaposed with this modern touch is a library niche containing an artfully arranged collection of old books piled up on each other.

The hotel has 95 guestrooms in three different categories: standard, superior or deluxe. An additional six junior suites are accessed via a private entrance lobby with exclusive elevator access. Guestroom schemes are influenced by various elements of the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies. Alongside pieces created especially by IZEU for the hotel, Dutch firm Pol Potten have supplied various standing lamps, stools and side tables. Fabrics are from Lelievre, Missoni and Dedar, with Lano carpets and zebra skin rugs (also by Pol Potten). Lighting has been supplied by the likes of Contardi of Italy, La Fibule, and local showroom Silvera. Bathroom fittings are by Inda of Italy with Brot mirrors. Furniture includes travel trunk vanity units and wardrobes, and retro-style dressing tables. The hotel’s logo, a pair of pouting Dali-esque lips, is seen in wall mounted plaster moulds, alongside photography by Stephanie Saade and flea market artworks.

Public areas are limited to a cosy bar at the entrance of the hotel, and a small basement breakfast room. In the bar, two large black chequered armchairs sit in front of the white bar with vintage accents. Contemporary square chrome and black leather barstools neighbour a selection of round side tables, some in polished lacquer, others in rough-hewn wood, again supplied by Pols Potten. Colour comes from the antique collection of glass and crystal decanters, filled with brightly-hued liqueurs, neatly arranged atop the bar counter, and a stuffed peacock overlooking the scene from the window.

The breakfast room is inspired by classic Fifties American diners, with its self-service food counter, bright red Formica-topped tables, and leather seating. Finally, on the ground floor, the hotel’s only meeting room has a contemporary Seventies style which can accommodate up to 16 people boardroom style or thirty standing.

“In re-creating the Hotel Jules, I was seduced by the challenge and the fun that could be had in creating a new angle to accommodations in this city, especially as it gave us a chance to breathe fresh air into the hotel industry of Paris,” says Grace Leo. “Our goal was to be daring but functional. I wanted to create a place that was stylish and innovative but at the same time had no attitude – a trap that fashionable hotels have a tendency to fall in.”

The chic elements of the hotel are seen in fashion references and details such as the Chanel-style piping of an upholstered armchair, the studded belt buckles wrapped around the travel trunk style wardrobes, or the houndstooth check of the lobby carpet. The casual side is represented in the carefree way such elements are mixed and matched. Jules is like an immaculately dressed Parisian lady with an inimitable sense of style, but also an approachable air of warmth and fun – much like Grace Leo herself in fact.

Hotel Jules
49 Rue Lafayette
75009 Paris France
Tel: +33 1 42 85 05 44
Web: www.hoteljules.com

Rooms 101 guestrooms inc. 6 suites
Dining Breakfast bar
Drinking Bar
Facilities Meeting Room