Hotel Montalembert

• 17.5 Feedback Score

  17.5 of 20 average feedback score from 64 people who have actually stayed at Hotel Montalembert.

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  • Rooms

    17.5

  • Service

    18.0

  • Public Spaces

    17.5

  • Overall

    17.5

• 34 Guest Reviews

  34 Verified reviews from people who have booked Hotel Montalembert on Tablet Hotels.

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Neighborhood: 7th Arr. (Eiffel Tower/Musée D'Orsay)

Style: Contemporary Classic

Atmosphere: Quiet

56 Rooms

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Interior designers go ga-ga. Writers and their agents love it for lunch. It's neither Seventh Arrondissement baroque-ornate-stuffy, nor is it one of those faded, low-ceilinged haunts so prevalent in the Latin Quarter. Located just off the Boulevard St Germain, the Montalembert manages to be timeless, fashionista, high-tech, and Left Bank — all at the same time. It's the perfect place to be spotted with your BlackBerry and your best black, drinking sherry and reading Simone de Beauvoir. Needless to say, during fashion week, while the models are eating strawberries at Hotel Costes, their editors are at the Montalembert comparing notes. Since it first opened in 1929, the Montalembert has been a hot spot for the Parisian literati. Thanks to Grace Leo-Andrieu and Francois Champsaur, the hotel has changed—better food, better décor—but the crowd has not.

Both of them have an intense style, combined with an equally intense respect for tradition and lack of pretention, and it shows — the Montalembert, though cutting-edge, is comfortable and classic. It's telling that so many decorators and architects choose it as their Parisian home. Rooms, though tiny, are either Louis Philippe traditional with modern accents (square pillows, Eric Schmitt lamps), or contemporary (Christian Liaigre chaises and furniture) without being formidable (the beds are for sleeping, as well as admiring.) Vertumne's (the Parisian florist) flowers are perfectly suited — exquisite but not ostentatious, and each blossom perfect. But most gratifying is the space downstairs. Bar, lobby, restaurant and library are contained in a space the size of most Parisian apartments (read, small) separated only by subtle gradations in light.

One oddity: the bathrooms. While the rooms are small, the bathrooms are smaller, and entirely nickel-plated. So during those particularly vulnerable minutes spent at your toilette, you're faced with your many reflections. Still, it probably suits the charming, but somewhat self-absorbed nature of the Montalembert clientele (fashion insiders, decorators, artists, writers.) Besides, most are too appreciative of the high-speed hair dryer to notice.