HOTEL REVIEW
Hotel Jules
Grace Leo has returned to the Paris hotel
scene with a ‘casual-chic’ hotel in the
Paris
fashionable 9th arrondisement, with interiors
by Tristan Auer and Frederic Sicard of IZEU.
Words: Matt Turner Photography: Courtesy of GLA Hotels
race Leo is a name synonymous ‘Affordable,’ however is not a word that in the authentic 9th district of Paris, I was
G
with high-end hotels. Over her would immediately spring to mind when both excited and intrigued by the challenge
twenty year career, she has describing any of them. So it comes as a of creating a new genre of hotels which is
created some twenty projects surprise to find GLA’s latest Parisian project stylish and innovative, totally in sync with the
in various capacities as operator, designer, not on the Champs-Élysées or Place de la neighbourhood, and yet priced sensitively to
marketeer and ‘creative consultant’. There Concorde, but nestled in the up-and-coming reflect current economic conditions.”
have been luxury resorts in glamorous SoPi (South of Pigalle) district of the 9th Having accepted the challenge, she enlisted
destinations such as The Cotton House in arrondissement. designers Tristan Auer and Frederic Sicard
Mustique, The Guanahani in St Barts and The Hotel Jules is the first in a new line of of IZEU, to transform the property in a
Royal Riviera in St Jean Cap Ferrat. In Paris, “Casual Chic” hotels in the GLA portfolio, deliberate mix of styles spanning the Fifties,
she created a trio of seminal ‘design’ hotels characterised by its funky, retro design, old- Sixties, and Seventies.
– The Montalambert, The Lancaster, and The fashioned homeliness and reasonable rates, The project team have taken their
Bel Ami. Elsewhere, projects have included rather than the restrained elegance for which inspiration from François Truffaut’s cult
U2’s The Clarence, in Dublin, and the Bairro she is best known. 1962 movie ‘Jules et Jim’, to evoke the
Alto in Lisbon. As Grace Leo explains: “My expertise and carefree bohemian feel of post-war France.
It’s an eclectic portfolio, but all of these experience has thus far been focused on the “My intentions,” says Leo, “were to create a
hotels have been exclusive, expensive, and creation and repositioning of upscale luxury casual meeting place that is effortlessly cool,
exquisitely imbued what has been described in properties. When I was asked by my investor funky and chic at the same time, yet avoiding
the past as ‘a touch of Grace’. partners to take over a 100-room property the pitfalls of the recent generation of
064 MARCH / APRIL 2010 WWW.SLEEPERMAGAZINE.COM WWW.SLEEPERMAGAZINE.COM MARCH / APRIL 2010
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