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This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to Paris
There are obvious complexities in dedicating a pleasure palace to the memory of Marcel Proust, a man who spent much of his life as a hypochondriac, an invalid and a recluse. There are added complexities in celebrating a writer whose lengthy work most visitors may not have dared to read.
But Maison Proust, a sumptuous hotel in Paris’s Marais district, does not let such things get in its way. It leans straight into Proust nostalgia. It aims to evoke the glories of the Belle Époque — the salons and the soirées — with the help of some fine art from the era. There are nods to Proust’s links with the Impressionists and the writers John Ruskin and Anna, Comtesse de Noailles.
When you walk in, you are faced with a quote written into the wood panelling: an extract from volume two of À la recherche du temps perdu, in which the narrator Marcel’s much-desired Albertine promises to spend the night in his hotel room. She offers him the chance to “sit by my bed and watch me eat and afterwards we will play at anything you choose”. Well, quite. The staff are on hand with other crumbs of Proust as required.
The hotel’s creators, Sylviane Sanz and Yoni Aïdan, also run the five-star Maison Souquet in Montmartre and the four-star Maison Athénée near the Opéra Garnier. They say that their designs favour the sensual over the ostentatious. At Maison Proust, a bar and restaurant area with an intriguingly dark decor stretches out on the ground floor. A few dozen luxuriant armchairs yearn for conversation. There is just room to tuck in a small library, its round ceiling hand-painted with sea monsters.
The jewels in the crown, however, are downstairs in the basement: a swimming pool and sauna, fenced by columns and mosaics, and inspired, we’re told, by the “Orientalism of Aunt Léonie’s salons, where Marcel Proust spent part of his childhood”.
All guests can have the 10-metre pool and hammam to themselves for an hour a day. This has many advantages, not least for those travellers who have committed the age-old sin of forgetting their swimming costume (although beware the security camera). There are also three rooms for spa treatments.
Upstairs, as in many old Parisian buildings, the rooms have to be rather less wide than a Proust novel. The 23 bedrooms and suites range from 20 to 100 square metres. But they make the most of the space with bold wallpaper and with paintings by artists including Leonardo Gasser, Paul-Albert Laurens and Proust’s friend Madeleine Lemaire.
From my suite on the fifth floor, I could see the top of the Eiffel Tower, as well as, in true Parisian style, the contents of the building opposite. The Rue de Picardie outside is quiet; the Place de la République and the old Jewish quarter are both short walks away.
Proust is remembered for his idea of involuntary memory: an experience, like madeleine cakes dipped in tea, which will thrust you back to a precious moment. The bar at Maison Proust offers cocktails such as “La Madeleine”, including vodka and Amaretto, and “Le Temps Retrouvé”, designed by the bartender Colin Field, formerly of the Ritz Paris. The latter includes champagne, black truffle and a shot of Armagnac Château Laubade from 1922, the year of Proust’s death. Too many of these, and presumably the result won’t be involuntary memory but an involuntary lack of memory. Given the experience on offer at Maison Proust, that would be a shame.
At a glance
Rooms and suites: 11 rooms, 12 suites
Good for: Cosy luxury. A private swim
Not so good for: Families. Your wallet
FYI: “Le Temps Retrouvé” cocktail will set you back an eye-watering €500
Rates: Doubles from €1,000 (early January)
Address: 26 Rue de Picardie, 75003 Paris
Website; Directions
Henry Mance stayed as a guest of Maison Proust
Do you have a favourite Paris hotel? Tell us about it in the comments below. And follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter
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