Hotel of the Week: This New Paris Hideaway Is One of the Sexiest Secrets in Town
The Experimental Marais lures a cosmopolitan crowd with its Tristan Auer interiors, sultry American bar, and Mad Men-esque restaurant
The Paris based Experimental Group is on a roll with its clever trademark business model of sleuthing outdated or design-deficient hotels in superb locations and giving them dramatic makeovers. This past winter, they had a hit on their hands in Alpine France with the top-to-bottom renovation of the Experimental Val d’Isere, and now they’ve launched one of the sexiest hotels in Paris with the Experimental Marais (formerly known by the ghastly name of the Sinner).
Located on the rue du Temple in the Upper Marais, possibly the hippest neighborhood in Paris right now, this anonymous contemporary building with a charcoal gray façade and frosted glass windows offers visitors an intriguing surprise just through the front door where nonchalantly chic interior designer Tristan Auer, who most recently signed the soigné renovations of the Hôtel de Crillon and the Hotel Les Bains, captures attention.
Auer retained the Gothic-inspired millwork and monastic character of the existing hotel, but created elegantly louche decors for the rooms with dark wood paneling, coffered ceilings, lipstick-red lacquered consoles and side tables, Fifties-style ceramic bedside lamps influenced by the pottery of Vallauris in the South of France, and beds made up in white duvets. Eclectic accessories, including ceramic busts, vases and framed photographs, posters and lithographs, formulate an atmosphere of comfort and visual sophistication.
Downstairs, Auer opened the public spaces of the hotel to flood them with light and give the hotel a completely new identity. The American bar with its subtle New York art deco, including a dark brown-and-apricot color scheme and oak shelves displaying one of the best selections of whisky in Paris, has immediately become one of the best places for a cocktail in Paris, and the two tipples not to miss are the Mysterious Traveler—a smooth pour of American Bar vermouth, Bénédictine, Pierre Ferrand cognac, and cocoa-infused Fino, and the Flatiron, which is made with Tequila Ocho, mango, Manzanilla and chipotle salt.
Temple & Chapon, the hotel’s restaurant, is a hit with Parisians en mal de New York (who miss New York) with its Mad Men Sixties décor, including a new cathedral ceiling, and American steakhouse menu by cheffe Mélanie Serre. Start with the crab cakes, then go with the grilled sea bass with sauce vierge and a big order of some of the best frites in Paris, before finishing up with a Paris New York, a choux pastry filled with praline and pecan cream. The small Suzanne Kaufmann spa features a plunge pool and offers a variety of treatments, including facials and massages.