Rates: from €150
Added extras: vinyl record players in selected rooms
Services: wifi, restaurant and bar
Le Pigalle is the direct opposite of impersonal, it was built to be a neighbourhood establishment and still functions like a local business. The place is filled with groups of friends meeting up to put on records and spend hours chatting on the sofas. It is worth pointing out that the team are all from the surrounding village-like Pigalle area.
Always filled with a hubbub of laughter and clinking glasses, the hotel’s reception melds into the restaurant and the conviviality will have you staying longer than planned. Designed by two inspirational architects, Charlotte de Tonnac and Hugo Sauzay, from the Festen agency, decor is inspired by the neo-classicism of the Nouvel Athènes micro-neighbourhood. Think marble basins, curved bay windows and leopard-print detailing (a nod to the hostess bars on the same street). Rooms 12,15, 17, 21, 22 and 35 are designed in the style of Paris apartments; there’s a bunk-bed in one, a bathroom that opens onto a bedroom in another, vintage furniture, vinyl turntables with discs and even a leather-covered bar.
From the paintings on the walls to the sandalwood Le Labo perfume wafting from the bathroom, no detail is left to chance. The collaborations and brands in the hotel are a key part of the hotel’s charm. Camille Fourmont (of La Buvette) is commandeering proceedings in the kitchen, there’s risque paintings by Pierre-Ange Carlotti, vinyls are chosen by Victor Kiswell and designer Alexandre Guillemain is in charge of furniture.
This is one seriously successful melting pot, where you’ll feel at right at home - in what might as well be the apartment of your dreams.