Arty Hotel in Saint Germain des Pres Paris

Here is what Fiona and Leo from Hotelguru.com said about the artistic hotel des Academies et des Arts Paris:

“A perfect reason for basing yourself in Montparnasse and exploring the Left Bank is the new Hôtel des Academies et des Arts 15 rue de la Grande Chaumiere, phone: 0033 1 43 26 66 44; www.hoteldesacademies.com ; doubles from £165 to £214 per night, including breakfast.
The best hotel (…) to have opened in the city for some time, it’s happy proof that the small charming Parisian bolthole is alive and kicking. Husband and wife Laurent and Charlotte Inschauspe have created a spotless, highly individual haven, cosy yet contemporary and full of artistic flair, right opposite the art school La Grande Chaumiere where Gaugin and Modigliani took courses and a few steps from the famous artists’ cafés of Montparnasse.

Two artists have deftly created the hotel’s unique look: Jerome Mesnager, whose joyous white silhouettes are painted directly on to bedroom walls and all the way up the lift shaft  and sculptor – and mother of Charlotte – Sophie Watrigant, whose equally endearing figures climb a dainty steel ladder from the bottom to the top of the five-storey stair well.

As for the 20 bedrooms, they are compact but have the classy feel of a top hotel and come in four distinct designs, all cleverly lit with stone-lined bathrooms, sculptured taps and exceptional beds. Room service is provided by the well-regarded restaurant, Wadja, opposite.

In the morning take breakfast (all fresh) in the tiny ‘petit bistrot’ or at a velvet sofa beside shelves stocked with art books. Or take a seat facing the wall screen and watch an art video as you eat, perhaps of Mesnager at work painting his white figures on to the hotel’s walls. Service is from smiling, smartly uniformed waiters, while receptionists are relaxed and warm. A perfect fusion of quality and character. There’s even a little Moroccan style spa downstairs, where treatments can be arranged at short notice.”

Book a room at the best artistic hotel in Paris – Hotel des Academies et des Arts Paris 

Best design hotel in Montparnasse Paris

What does The Times think of Hotel des Academies et des Arts Paris?

By George Sivell, The Times Online

“I have never been trusted with a work of art before, let alone slept with one, but that is what happened to me in Paris.
The place – Montparnasse, and the Hotel des Academies et des Arts, a new boutique hotel in rue de la Grande Chaumiere. The street is famously intertwined with the threads of French art history winding back to the French Revolution. Surrounding houses were home to Paul Gauguin and Amedeo Modigliani.Hotel des Academies et des Arts is a 150 year old town house converted from a one-star hotel by its current owners Laurent Inchauspé and his wife Charlotte, who have lovingly maintained the area’s artistic tradition.

The art – delivered in each of 20 beautiful rooms at Hotel des Academies et des Arts Paris by one-time street artist Jerome Mesnager, known for his characteristic black and white silhouette paintings of human bodies on walls and open spaces around the world. Sophie de Watrigant, the French sculptress, has furnished the hotel with numerous white figures, invariably climbing model ladders.

Her most spectacular work “joins” the basement to the fifth floor of the hotel in the vortex of the spiral staircase. The lift offers a progressive view of a giant Mesnager sretching a similar distance at Hotel des Academies et des Arts Paris.

Rooms at Hotel des Academies come in one of four themes which can be specified on reservation. I soaked up the ambience in a Man Ray room, with a black and white interior styled in tribute to the famous photographer, but would recommend any of the alternative themes available. Parisienne represents classic French city living in cream and taupe, Comedienne, as the French word for actor/actress implies, invokes the red of French theatre, and La Ruhlmann where the rooms were inspired by the luxurious textiles used by one of the most famous French art deco designers.

Cost per double room is from €210 to €270, which seems to me to be good value for a boutique hotel in the Paris arrondissements, especially a trendy one, such as the sixth. Also some very interesting extras. The hotels offers a range of cultural visits in addition to seeing the studios used by Jerome Mesnager or Sophie de Watrigant. A personal shopper can be hired for a half day tour of the deluxe boutiques in the sixth arrondissement or a full day shopping trip which combines, compares and contrasts the best of the sixth arrondissement with the delights of the Palais Royal area in the deluxe right bank first and second arrondissements.

The surrounding area of the Hotel des Academies et des Arts is classic Left Bank Paris. It is near a quiet, less frequented corner of famous Jardins de Luxembourg. Stepping out of the hotel in the other direction gets you onto what is now known as the Place Pablo Picasso, the junction of Boulevard Montparnasse and Boulevard Raspail. From there, and in all too brief a time, I squeezed in a walk to the fascinating Jardin Atlantique, an oasis of deliberately wild garden built behind the Gare Montparnasse, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Montparnasse Cemetry and the Fondation Cartier. “

Book a room at Hotel des Academies et des Arts Paris