Saint James Paris, a chateau-hotel in Paris surrounded by its own gardens, has just completed a total renovation of its interiors and gardens with newly designed rooms and suites, new indoor swimming pool, expanded spa and new restaurant concepts indoors and out, all taking the City of Lights as its inspiration.
Just off the boutiques and restaurants of Victor Hugo Ave., in the exclusive 16th arrondissement, this elegant Relais & Chateaux property a few minutes walk from the Champs Elysees, has been fully reimagined by French interior designer Laura Gonzalez and landscape architect Xavier de Chirac, with a new restaurant helmed by chef Julien Dumas.
“At the Saint James, time stands still, but never in the past,” said Gonzalez. “Our aim was to transpose the different periods that embody Parisian style: the 19th century with its Chinese curios, neoclassic mouldings, art deco details. Mastering the art of mixing and matching styles is, for me, what epitomizes the Parisian hôtel particulier.”
For the interiors, Gonzalez took inspiration from the garden setting and the building’s 1892 neoclassical architecture. Outside, in the 50,000-sq.-ft. gardens, de Chirac created a classical garden that flowers in every season highlighted by a pergola-shaded outdoor bar and patio for warm-weather dining.
“I wanted to recreate the atmosphere of classic gardens and immerse visitors in an abundance of scents, color and soothing plant life,” said de Chirac. “There are flowers that bloom in every season: an exuberant garden from the first days of spring to the end of summer, which becomes a cocoon cloaked in changing tones in autumn and surprises you with deliciously sweet-smelling Sarcococca that flower in winter.”
Inside, Bellefeuille, the new restaurant helmed by Chef Dumas (formerly of the Michelin-starred Parisian restaurant Lucas Carton), is nature-inspired, from the floral IKSEL wallpaper to the tasting menu of carefully chosen, responsibly harvested ingredients.
The hotel’s Guerlain spa—one of only two in Paris, outside of the Guerlain Institute—was completely transformed. The spa, fitness and lounge areas now stretch over more than 4,000 sq. ft. on two floors of the hotel, with three handsome treatment booths (including one double), a fitness room, a hammam, a sauna, a whirlpool and a surprise in the depths of the hotel: an immense 50-ft. swimming pool bathed in natural light pouring in through a glass ceiling.
The Saint James Paris’ neoclassical building was originally commissioned by the widow of the former French president, Adolphe Thiers, to house students awarded scholarships from the Thiers Foundation. It later became the home of the Saint James Club, modeled after the private clubs of London, and since 1991 it has been a hotel and club.
This latest reinvention honors the style of Europe’s grand hotels but conveys a brighter, more modern and playful attitude. Vintage room keys dangle on display behind the reception desk, which sits in front of a 20-ft. tree of life plaster relief wall sculpture, and under a ceiling of frescoes designed by the decorator and painted by artists from the Atelier Roma. The lobby is the heart of Saint James, humming at all hours; its chess table and piano waiting patiently for a guest to sit down and play; its house cat, Pilou, passing through.
Each of the 50 rooms and suites—including some duplex and two, ground-floor suites with a terrace—are unique. All have remarkable volumes and ceiling height as well as a medley of art deco spirit and contemporary details. Geometric patterns flirt with 18th century flowers while luxuriant, velvety textures are perfectly paired with Versailles parquets and antique details, all part of four delightful color schemes.
Interior designer Gonzalez juggled different styles and periods with well-practiced ease. For her, the Saint James embodies the iconic Parisian “hôtel particulier,” a grand townhouse with entrance court in front and garden behind. Her ambition was to enhance the building’s neoclassic architecture, adding light and subtracting surplus to spotlight the incredible volumes, mouldings and myriad ornamental details. Highlights, such as the magnificent tiling on the ground floor, were left untouched, while she brightened the atmosphere by using light, soft tones ranging from butter to shades of green.
The new Saint James invites guests on a journey through time, into a seamlessly stitched patchwork of styles from 19th-century Chinese curios to art deco details, from floral art nouveau patterns to Greco-Roman geometric details. Everywhere you look, the ultra-classic architectural bases are tweaked by unexpected eclectic inspirations. A precarious exercise whose success depended on a host of talented French artisans, craftspeople and companies: fabrics by Maison Pierre Frey and Le Manach; plasterwork by Sofrastyl and Atelier Roma; custom rugs from Manufacture Pinton; lighting from Patrice Dangel and Jean Roger Paris; upholstery work by Atelier Escabelle and more.
