Located on 28 Saint-Benoît,Paris, Hotel Montana was designed by architect Elisabeth LemerciAncreer and designer Vincent Darré. The marriage of water and fire. A streamlined structure versus baroque décor. Behind the black façade, the 6 suites (one per floor), in the model of eccentric Parisian apartments, are directly serviced by a lift. These 6 little worlds are extravagantly chic in their use of volume, inspiration and colour, and have various amenities to ensure their occupants never get bored. The common theme is a tribute to the surrealists. A palette borrowed from Le Corbusier, designer furniture mixing with ’50s pieces, multiple mirrors, curios, …
La Montana was a popular Parisian jazz club in the 1950s — just a stone’s throw from Les Deux Magots, it drew a Left-Bank literary crowd that included James Baldwin and Parisian polymath Boris Vian. In the ‘60s, the designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac frequented Montana — and soon it became, as it is today, one of Paris’s most exclusive clubs. Le Montana is reviving its history and becoming a hotel once more. Reminiscent of the time it was attended by the cream of the existentialists, then by Grace Jones and other friends. Le Montana masters the mixing of genres in both its décor and choice of clientèle.
The Hotel Montana’s suites are each inspired by a different person or era. The suite Blanc Graffiti is themed around Jean Cocteau. “He is my King,” says designer Vincent Darré. Upholstery on chairs from Pierre Frey fabrics.
Hotel Montana- Paris’s Vibrant And Surrealist Interior Design
“Wherever you travel in the world, hotels always have the same decoration, so I wanted this to feel like you are actually in Paris,” says Darré. “Like an eccentric friend gave you a key to his apartment.” The only constant throughout the rooms are the bathrooms: all of them are covered with slick black tiling. “They’re very Gainsbourg,” Darré says with a laugh. “A little naughty… But I think the people who stay in this hotel are a little rock and roll.” On the first floor, its restaurant La Gauche Caviar provides the opportunity to feed on heart of Salmon or Petrossian Caviar the Russian way, off the back of ones hand, in a hushed atmosphere evoking the library of a Germanopratin intellectual. Otherwise, cocktails and beautiful people from 6pm to midnight at the bar on the ground floor.
The restaurant, Le Gauche Cavier, at Paris’s Hotel Montana has a Russian-inspired menu and chairs by Maison Darré.
The suite Noir Métaphysique features a carpet by Codimat in an eye print; chairs and ‘Conversation Canapé’ by Maison Darré.
