Hotel Madame Reve, Paris, review: Post office transformed into dream hotel

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This was published 2 years ago

Hotel Madame Reve, Paris, review: Post office transformed into dream hotel

By Lee Tulloch
Updated
The Louvre Post Office was once France's largest. Hotel Madame Reve occupies the top two levels of the building.

The Louvre Post Office was once France's largest. Hotel Madame Reve occupies the top two levels of the building.

THE PLACE

The Louvre Post Office was once France's largest, open 24 hours a day. The 19th century building was sold for redevelopment in 2014, interrupting 250 continuous years of a post office on that site. Architect Dominque Perrault, who designed the imposing Biblioteque Nationale de France, was responsible for the project, which will include a police station, offices, shops, a luxury hotel and, yes, a branch of the post office. Hotel Madame Reve occupies the top two levels of the building including its 1000 square metre rooftop garden, as well as the old street level dispatch area, which is now a cafe.

THE LOCATION

The hotel has 82 rooms and suites, all contemporary takes on the romantic Paris attic, with sloping windows under a low ceiling.

The hotel has 82 rooms and suites, all contemporary takes on the romantic Paris attic, with sloping windows under a low ceiling.

A 10-minute walk from the Louvre, the colonnaded Palais-Royale, the newly restored La Samaritaine department store and a block or two from the new Pinault Collection in the Bourse de Commerce, the hotel is in one of Paris' upcoming neighbourhoods, Bourse. Because it's close to the old covered market, Les Halles, and the busy Montorgueil pedestrian market street, it's surrounded by classic bistros, cookware shops and famous bakeries and patisseries.

THE SPACE

Founder, restaurateur and artistic director Laurent Taieb envisioned a space where all kinds of Parisians could mix, targeting sophisticated digital nomads who needed an address for both work and a social life. Homage is paid to the post office in the hotel's themes, including bespoke carpets woven with stamp and telegram motifs and a collection of 800 pieces of mail art, bought from a private collector, hanging on the walls throughout the rooms. Working with interior designer Bruno Borrione, Taïeb employed the best of French craftsmanship in furniture, cabinetry, mosaics and glasswork to complete his vision. The rooms are filled with work by French artists, including a romantic entrance fresco by Jacques Villegle. Perfumer Olivier Jacobetti created a warm rose and cedar fragrance that wafts throughout. There's a small spa and gym and a rooftop garden with panoramic views, which will be lush once the trees grow. Four hundred solar panels on the rooftop supply half the hotel's hot water.

THE ROOM

Room 372, Paris View category. The hotel has 82 rooms and suites, all contemporary takes on the romantic Paris attic, with sloping windows under a low ceiling, which are efficiently covered with blackout blinds at night. My room has a district view of zinc-topped rooftops. "Exceptional View" rooms and suites look out on the medieval church of Saint-Eustache, 39 rooms look over the garden, and some have views of the Eiffel Tower. Some suites have terraces. Conveniently, all hotel rooms are on the third floor, as is La Plume restaurant which serves breakfast, so access is easy, provided you take note of which wing you are in (handily signposted in the corridors). The room is as cosy as an artist's atelier, luxuriously appointed with a leather sofa, marble-topped table, small desk and mid-century sideboard containing mini bar, generous built-in robes, a pink and gold flecked-tile bathroom with shower and herringbone timber floors. The post office theme is cleverly carried through in the bespoke carpets and writing papers on the desk. The mood is cosy and sexy with warm caramels and burnt orange colouring, bronze and gold highlights, including gilding behind the bed, and rich walnut panelling. The hotel's name translates to "Madame is dreaming" and perhaps by coincidence, I finally beat my jet lag cosseted in its lavish cocoon.

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THE FOOD

With wide views over the dome of the Bourse du Commerce and the medieval church of Saint-Eustache and opening onto a garden courtyard, the hotel's French Japanese fusion restaurant, La Plume, creates an interesting new perspective for the city's dining rooms. Decorated in the same warm hues as the guest rooms, with a ceiling mural by Australian-based Chilean artist Maria Jose Benvenuto, at night it's gorgeous and glowing and, judging by the buzz when I eat there, is becoming instantly popular with a young, urban crowd. Chef Benjamin Six (from Zuma in London and Dubai) has created a seafood-rich menu featuring sea bream sashimi, lobster hot pot, roasted sea bass and sole tempura, as well as more familiar French dishes delivered with Asian flair, such as roasted duck breast with chili-ginger sauce. Desserts are by famed patissiere Pierre Herme. Call out to the superb wait staff. There's a beautiful horseshoe-shaped bar and a separate entrance on rue Etienne Marcel. The restaurant also serves continental breakfast for guests.

STEPPING OUT

Paris is a great walking city and the hotel's location in the central 1er arrondissement means popular sites on the Right Bank, including the Tuileries Gardens and the Marais, can be explored easily on foot, while the Left Bank is accessed via Pont Neuf. Major metro stops Les Halles, Opera and Palais-Royale Louvre connect you to anywhere else you wish to go.

THE VERDICT

Dreamy. A glamorous, design-led addition to Paris's already well-stocked luxury hotel scene, but one thoughtfully targeted at switched-on nomads who enjoy the sybaritic things of life.

ESSENTIALS

Rates from $874 a night. Hôtel Madame Rêve, 48 rue du Louvre, 75001 Paris, +33 1 80 40 77 70. See madamereve.com laplumeparis.com

HIGHLIGHT

Madame Rêve Café is bound to become one of Paris's favourite spots for drinks or light dishes, especially in summer when the outdoor terrace opens on Cour Gutenberg. The 300 square metre oak-floored room with its romantic Second Empire décor features eight-metre-high ceilings, rich wood panelling, chandeliers, velvet curtains and a long sweep of polished bar. The fictional Madame for whom the hotel is named has been imagined in gold paintwork on the walls if you look closely.

LOWLIGHT

For a hotel that is so well-designed the decision to place the separate toilet just inside the front entrance and not include a wash basin is odd. It's a very long walk through the bedroom and to the bathroom to wash your hands.

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