Maison Souquet
Maison Souquet is a fantasy, and it knows exactly what it's doing. The building was a maison close — a Belle Époque pleasure house — and rather than scrub that history away, the hotel leans all the way into it.
Jacques Garcia (the same hand behind Costes and La Réserve) designed the interiors using more than 120 fabrics, naming bedrooms after 19th-century courtesans and keeping the facade so discreet that only people who know to look will find it.
Jacques Garcia (the same hand behind Costes and La Réserve) designed the interiors using more than 120 fabrics, naming bedrooms after 19th-century courtesans and keeping the facade so discreet that only people who know to look will find it. The result is opulent, mysterious, slightly unreal — and one of the most genuinely romantic hotels in the city.
It has been called, more than once, the most romantic hotel in the world, and on atmosphere alone the claim is hard to dispute.
An understated facade on a Pigalle side street, marked only by two red lanterns. Slip through the door and the world changes — the Salon des 1001 Nuits, the hidden bar, the deliberate hush of a place built for discretion.
Twenty rooms and suites, each individually dressed in Garcia's lavish, sensual register — brocade, tasseled lamps, custom fabrics, portraiture. Theatrical in the best sense. Intimate rather than grand.
The clandestine cocktail bar is the room to find — fireplace, piano, library paneling, velvet. The hidden spa, with its celestial gold-star ceiling and small pool, is reserved for guests who ask for the key.
Pigalle, across from the Moulin Rouge, on the edge of Montmartre. The red-light past is long gone; what's left is one of the most characterful, alive corners of Paris. The neighborhood is the reason to stay here as much as the hotel.
Maison Souquet is for a particular kind of trip — romantic, theatrical, a little secret. If that's the trip you're taking, there is nothing else in Paris quite like it.
A former Pigalle maison close turned into one of Paris's most atmospheric hotels. The bordello-baroque interiors are bold without being ridiculous — the balance is harder to achieve than it looks.
One of the better hotel bars in the 9th. The cocktail list is genuine, the room is beautiful, and the crowd is a mix of guests and locals who know where to go.
Pigalle is in the middle of everything Paris that matters right now — the best natural wine bars, the right restaurants, the city's best new shops. Staying here puts you inside the real Paris.
20 rooms. The service-to-guest ratio makes itself felt immediately. You are not anonymous here, which is the point.
The rooms vary considerably in size and character. When booking, look at the specific room descriptions — the larger suites are notably different from the standard doubles.
Pigalle can be noisy at night. Upper floors and courtyard-facing rooms are significantly quieter.
The pool is small — one of the smaller hotel pools in Paris. Adjust expectations accordingly.
The area is lively enough that you will pass some of the original Pigalle at night. It is perfectly safe and actually part of the appeal.