Mon Hotel
Total Tango
There is no logic to passion. It grabs you in the gut and makes you lose control. For better or for worse, it's hard to say- but uplifting it certainly is.
There is a little of this in the history and atmosphere of Mon Hotel.
Completely renovated in 2007, this establishment is the product of pure luck. Argentinean luck, actually. This is a story that might leave a smile on the faces of certain South American writers.
How else could one explain how a former hedge fund investor, who was still brainstorming after just returned from a trip to Argentina, happens upon an offer to get into the hotel business through the purchase of a hotel on Argentina road? Sometimes a sign is much more than just a sign.
However, if the purchase of this hotel comes from chance luck, its renewal can only be understood through its history.
The walls of this hotel tell a story which is passed on from generation to generation, in a different way each time.
Gone is the age where Daniel's women came to the hotel with their lover for an evening or, perhaps just a short rendez-vous. Gone is the time when the writer Patrick Modiano made this little hotel his own, as he watched the world fade away amid the anonymous shadows of couples walking down its halls and rooms.
All of that is in the past. However, by purchasing the famous bar "Daniel's" next door, which was a discreet hostess bar that was frequented by the upper echelons, and by conserving its varnished black façade and its neon retro look, Mon Hotel brings the past into the present by sporting a trendy façade fetish that likes it plain on the outside and smoking hot on the inside.
Its easy to feel this when one enters into its small orginal entrance way, with its false airs as a provincial bourgeois residence. On the left, there is the dark and shiny new reception, which takes advantage of its corner space with designer furniture and a collection of brightly colored pop art.
Wrought with detail, the common areas provide a subdued ambiance with contrasting colors such as red and black, blue and black, and orange/black, along with thickly finished paintings which are lit up in a way reminiscent of ages past.
The 37 rooms in this hotel are the same. All of them are cozy little cocoons covered in a slightly tawny alcantara. The stretched ceilings and walls conserve their character and reinforce the snug ambiance inside. The colors are low-key: marine blue, white, maroon and beige. The beds are covered with fine bedspreads and the headboards are made of pure leather. The rooms are provided with modern amenities, such as ipod docks, flat screens, television channels from around the world and free wifi. The largest rooms also have nespresso machines, and more spacious bathrooms with bathtubs and a new type of shower/hamam complete with stereo and conference call features.
Likewise, while nothing is outdated, except for perhaps the radiators, the fairly compact rooms have preserved the low-key, intimate, and sensual ambiance needed for couples to rediscover one another.
With its Haussmannian exterior, Mon Hotel sits just behind the Avenue Foch and five minutes from the Arc du Triomphe. It is steps away from a major urban center, and at the same time, in a safe residential neighborhood. The Saint Ferdinand neighborhood, with its green tree lined square and restaurants, is also less than ten minutes away, along with the commercial rue Duret. On the other side, ascending up the avenue de la Grande Armee, one may feel the busy international vibe of the hip locales that give the Etoile area its trendy character.
1/3 rue d'Argentine
Metro station : Argentine - Charles de Gaulle Etoile
Hotels Paris 17e. Etoile - Maillot - Ternes