Hotel Le A

Hotel description

The first thing that’s notable about Hotel le A is the style. Any time a high-design, architecturally modern hotel opens in Paris, it’s news. First because there are still few of them — the Paris hotel scene remains in thrall to a century-old vision of architecture and interior design — and second because here, in one of the world’s style capitals, only the best contemporary design has a chance of surviving without being laughed out of town. That’s no danger, in this case. The design, by Frédéric Méchiche, is as contemporary as can be, a clean and simple vision in a monochrome palette, with ebony-stained wood floors and chocolate-brown sofas and armchairs against a backdrop of dazzling white. Some unique lighting effects lighten the mood, including an elevator ceiling that changes color at each floor. There’s more to a hotel than visual impact, of course. Beneath its modern surface, the Hotel le A deals in classic luxury. Rooms are smallish but spare no comfort, and are decorated with original works by the contemporary French artist Fabrice Hybert. Downstairs a library and lounge, complete with fireplace, offer space for relaxation. It’s a modernist oasis hidden away within a classic townhouse, all the more notable for the contrast between its interior and its location, in a buzzing commercial district between the Champs-Elysées and the Faubourg Saint-Honoré.