Hotel of the Week: Jacques Garcia Infuses Mediterranean-Inspired Maximalism Into a Legendary Monaco Hotel
Belle Époque Hotel Metropole Monte-Carlo reveals rejuvenated rooms poised to rival the French Riviera’s finest
Monaco has long relied on its ritzy reputation as enough of a draw to the principality, where stories swirl about the days of Princess Grace and the Hollywood jetset whose yachts fill the harbor. For decades, the skyline was stagnant—pastel-hued Belle Époque buildings as ornate as palaces hovering over the sea with a few modernist skyscrapers sprinkled in the distance.
Hidden in plain sight in Monte Carlo’s central Carré d’Or, or Golden Square, Hotel Metropole Monte-Carlo may mirror its neighbors with its tiled cupolas and columns, but its herringbone-brick driveway flanked by Tuscan cypresses, palm trees, and jasmine give it more of a Mediterranean villa feel.
Claiming the title of world’s second-smallest country, measuring less than a square mile, the only way to expand in Monaco is to build up—or over the sea, in the case of the newly debuted Mareterra district, where Renzo Piano is behind the striking, ship-shaped centerpiece structure. But as much as Monaco wants to modernize, its handful of grande dame hotels like Hotel Metropole are moving with the times without losing sight of their storied past.
Hotel Metropole’s facade looks nearly identical to its opening day in 1886 and remained untouched until it was acquired by the Lebanese Boustany family a century later. When Jacques Garcia—who rose to international fame following his Hotel Costes renovation—was brought in nearly 20 years ago for Metropole’s multimillion-dollar makeover, “the starting point was to differentiate the hotel from the Hôtel de Paris, which is one of a kind,” he said, referring to the neighboring hotel next to the casino. “The Hotel Metropole Monte-Carlo cannot be summed up in terms of a work of art or an artistic movement, and even less in terms of an era, because that would amount to a pastiche—we are telling a story here, a story of travel, of welcome, of the thirst for discovery.”
Stepping into Hotel Metropole feels like a journey through different European epochs, from the golden lead mask 18th-century fountain at the entrance to the bar’s slate-colored columns sculpted from the same marble lining the Château de Versailles. For Metropole’s recent reiteration, Garcia started on the ground floor and worked his way up, replacing the somber, coal-hued former space of lauded late chef Joël Robuchon with more timeless tones of pearl and gold for executive chef Christophe Cussac’s two Michelin-starred Les Ambassadeurs.
The first phase of the renovation debuted in early fall and includes 45 freshly designed rooms and suites on the second and third floors. Deluxe suites have been transformed into spacious private apartments outfitted with honey-veined white Italian marble private bars and vintage-inspired Devon&Devon cast-iron tubs—a stark departure from the previous dark, heavy sunken baths. Floors alternate palettes of light goldenrod and sky blue (a nod to the Cote d’Azur) with custom embroidered Colefax and Fowler stripe-and-flower wall fabrics.
Garcia designed bespoke furnishings specifically to match the tone and style of the spaces, the most notable being the junior suites’ centerpiece neoclassical vanity, crafted from white ash wood and gilded Tassin leather, which cleverly conceal a retractable flat-screen television.
“It’s like a book we’re writing [with the hotel], and we’re entering a new chapter,” general manager Serge Ethuin tells Galerie. “We are proud to present the first stage of our property’s transformation, which reflects both the hotel’s enduring heritage and forward-thinking vision.”