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"FacebookPinterest\n\n The problem with working and living in Paris is that you never get to visit Paris yourself, and because of that you\u2019re never really in a good position to recommend a hotel. (Although everybody thinks you are).\n\n Until recently, the best hotel I could offer my friends was &amp;quot;Pas Chez Moi,&amp;quot; which was located, I told them, anywhere outside my apartment.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n First off, Hotel Particulier in French doesn\u2019t mean &amp;quot;Particular Hotel.&amp;quot; It means &amp;quot;private house,&amp;quot; but not in the bed and breakfast rickety stairwell sense. Hotel particuliers were often built by rich bourgeois families in the 17th and 18th century who were trying to keep up with the royalty of the time. Being the chateau wanabees they were, hotel particuliers would often feature servants\u2019 quarters, courtyards, and gardens, and would stand-alone even though they were often inside city centers.\n\n Morgane Rousseau\u2019s Hotel Particulier\u2019s no different. Before it was a hotel, it housed many a rich Parisian family, one of whom was the Hermes family, which gives it an &amp;quot;if only the walls could speak&amp;quot; vibe.\n\n &amp;quot;The cool thing with the hotel is that it brings family drama with it. You know, family crises, bankruptcy maybe, adultery\u2014all that stuff that makes for cool legend and notable addresses,&amp;quot; says Rousseau. \n\n Atop Montmartre, off of avenue Junot, one of Paris\u2019s chicest streets, Hotel Particulier Montmartre is hidden down a long alleyway behind a gate, nestled behind a big rock, and behind another private gate marked D. No, you don\u2019t have to say &amp;quot;Fidelio&amp;quot; to get in, but it is easy to miss, and if you don\u2019t have advance notice, you won\u2019t find it off the street, which is exactly what the owners want.\n\n Because of the limited number of rooms (only five) and it\u2019s discreet location, the hotel has made the rounds of French and Hollywood agents, who\u2019ve booked their stars there instead of the Ritz or the Meurice, so they can be far from the paparazzi\u2019s gaze.\n\n &amp;quot;I had a French star recently who stayed here for two months. He lived in Paris, but wanted to be isolated, and he felt he could work better here.&amp;quot;\n\n For Parisians, it\u2019s also a cool place to meet friends for a drink or do an interview, just as long as you call in advance.\n\n &amp;quot;Before this, I owned a chateau in the Beaujolais region, Ch&amp;amp;#xE2;teau de Bionnay, and the idea there was the same as it is here\u2014not for it to be just a hotel, but a meeting place, a performance space, an artist\u2019s retreat or literary salon.&amp;quot;\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n It\u2019s true; Hotel Particulier Montmartre\u2019s first floor reminds you more of a British gentleman\u2019s club from the \u201950s and \u201960s than a hotel lobby. It\u2019s masculine colors of black and brown and Danish furniture from the \u201950s and \u201960s, the leather embroidered couches and bar, Morgane says, is inspired by Napoleon III\u2019s reign, &amp;quot;Le Directoire&amp;quot;, which Morgane finds very attractive, very masculine, very &amp;quot;Eyes Wide Shut.&amp;quot;\n\n Its lawns and gardens, designed and attended to by Louis Benech, the gardener for the Tuileries Garden, gives the Hotel Particulier a peaceful setting, a sort of country estate feel in the middle of the metropolis, so it\u2019s easy to see how it could be an artist retreat, not just a star one.\n\nFacebookPinterest\n\n Each of the five rooms is individually designed, each varying in size and theme. Plus there\u2019s a giant top floor 850 square foot suite, which has a cozy lofty feel to it, kind of what an atelier of Giacometti would look like if Tom Ford designed it.\n\n Hotel Particulier Montmartre has had its kinks since opening. Figuring out the right decoration, dealing with the hazards of renovating an 18th century historically protected building hasn\u2019t been easy. &amp;quot;Adam Kimmel was the first guest,&amp;quot; says Morgane, &amp;quot;and when he got here we still had mattresses in the hallway.&amp;quot; That said, the challenges have given the place an old charm, even if it\u2019s relatively new. \n\n &amp;quot;Now that everything\u2019s become standardized or mass marketed, the real testament of luxury now is intimacy.&amp;quot; Says Rousseau. &amp;quot;It\u2019s rare to find an intimate place, or find intimacy in general. And I\u2019m not talking about VIP selectivity, velvet rope, guest list stuff, I mean places that are far from the noise and the ugliness and far from the nervousness of seeing and being seen.&amp;quot;\n\n She\u2019s right. It seems most cool boutique hotels nowadays are popular because they help people project an image of themselves, rather than being a special place that represents the city they\u2019re visiting.\n\n Hotel Particulier Montmartre isn\u2019t cheap, but it\u2019s real Paris, not the touristy stuff further up the hill. And when you\u2019re in the garden of Hotel Particulier Montmartre and hear the tour busses roll by or catch the tops of the heads of the Da Vinci code guides bull-horning their way up to Sacr\u00E9-Cur clad in Reeboks and fanny packs, you suddenly understand what the luxury of intimacy means.\n\n Finally I have a hotel now to recommend to friends, a place I can steal away to for a couple of days, three stops on the subway, in a small village up on Montmartre. And no, you need to find out the password on your own.\n\n Hotel Particulier Montmarte, 23, avenue Junot, Pavillon D, 75018"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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