Work on our new hotel – whose real name will be revealed next month – continues. Here are a few photos so you can see what’s been going on…

photos: BartOmeo

Only a few weeks left before you discover the name of the hotel and the historical figure who has inspired much of it. Don’t forget that we add new clues almost daily to the teaser site to help you guess. Some people have already worked out who our mystery celebrity is. Will you?

HBJ 2010

2010 is going to be a very busy year for the Hôtels Paris Rive Gauche group, with the opening of the Hôtel BJ.

Check out the teaser site, updated every week with new clues, to guess the name of the new hotel. We’ll be unveiling it completely in March 2010!

Happy New Year to you all, and thanks once again for following the blog and staying at our hotels.

he Hôtel BJ 2010 (our code name before the official name is revealed in March 2010), is a 4-star luxury hotel (i.e. five stars in most other countries’ rating system) in Paris’ 6th arrondissement that will open in the third quarter of 2010.

We are currently looking for personnel, starting with the key post of hotel manager…

photo : BartOmeo

The Ferrandi no longer exists. The hotel closed its doors in July 2009 for complete renovation and reopening under a new name. It will be a 34-room hotel with suites and apartments, a bar (serving light food), a spa open to the public, a garden and lounge areas.

Our challenge is to offer constant quality, inspired by the best luxury hotels in Europe and Paris.

The hotel will be a place where music and literature will be omnipresent, notably through special regularly organised events such as concerts or signings..

We are currently looking for the person who will oversee the spirit and organisation of this establishment dedicated to luxury, well-being and the arts.

Le Ferrandi becomes the BJ 2010 (temporary name). Photo: BartOmeo

We are looking for someone with an enquiring and open mind. He or she must have good communication and management skills, an eye for detail, a very keen sense of the service expected, and be able to anaylse situations and act concisively.

The mission of the person we are seeking – as manager of the new hotel – will be to lead a team of around twenty people in order to make the hotel a success and keep its quality at a constant level. He or she must be able to adapt any element of the new establishment in order to assure that the hotel functions correctly after it opens.

This mission will be aided by the management team of the Hôtels Paris Rive Gauche label.

Prior experience in hotel management is essential.

Please send your CV and accompanying letter to:

bj-2010@hotels-paris-rive-gauche.com

Post creation: 2nd trimester 2010

Follow us on Twitter @HotelBJ

The Hotel Ferrandi is no more, and « BJ 2010″ is our code name for new hotel that will be rising from its ashes. It’s our way of hiding the identity of the character who will be giving the hotel its new theme. For the moment though, the main character you’re likely to spot on the premises is our architect Vincent Bastie, in charge of bringing our ideas t life. We tell you a little more about the man…

Vincent Bastie. Photo : JasonW

Vincent Bastie is the architect overseeing the work on the hotel formerly known as the Ferrandi, currently code-named BJ(2010) until we reveal the secret new name. His expertise will allow all the beautiful ideas and objects imagined by Anne Gelbard and Corinne Moncelli to be made real.

Vincent has been collaborating with us for many years now; his studio worked with us on the interior decoration of the Hôtel Design Sorbonne, and he has had a hand in all the recent work carried out on our hotels, including the careful restoration of the façade of the Hôtel du Panthéon

Hôtel du Panthéon. Photo : JasonW

Vincent Bastié and his colleagues are well known on the Paris hotel circuit, as they have looked after work on several successful projects such as the Five, the Ares Hôtel, the Hôtel des Académies et des Arts, the Hidden Hôtel… land the list goes on. We think that his professionalism will guarantee a high-quality renovation.

photo : Julien Taylor

We couldn’t resist paying a visit to see the work currently being done. It was strange seeing the knocked-out husk of the old hotel. So much has gone! Only a few details give a hint of what was…

In the next few months we’ll keep you updated with news of the building work, and give you some more clues to help you guess which mysterious character who will be the theme of the hotel.

Here are some photos of the work currently being undertaken, followed by a quick film and the slideshows (to watch fullscreen if possible). More news soon!

photo : BartOmeo

photo : BartOmeo

photo : BartOmeo

To see the slideshow, press play and click the four little arrows at the bottom left.

photo : JasonW

photo : JasonW

photo : JasonW

photo : JasonW

photo : JasonW

To see the slideshow, press play and click the four little arrows at the bottom left

Bonus! A little films showing one of the last remaining walls between the old rooms being knocked down…

In June we told you about the closure of the Hôtel Ferrandi St Germain for a long stretch of remodelling. We’re now happy to announce that 2010 will see the hotel reborn with a new name and four stars instead of three.

photos (except where indicated): JasonW

Corinne Moncelli, the hotel’s owner, has decided to give a new life to this establishment by telling the story, or rather stories, of a historical figure who was a symbol of beauty, intelligence, finesse and wisdom. Over the coming months we will be giving you some clues that may help you to guess which character will be giving his/her name to the new hotel…

We have also previously told you how much we love the work of Anne Gelbard. Corinne Moncelli has thus decided to allow Anne to conceive the interior decoration for the project. Together – with the invaluable aid of our architect Vincent Bastie – the two are currently working close together, dreaming up the wonders that you’ll find in the future hotel: the colours, furniture, lighting, floors, walls, bathrooms, rooms, lounge… Everything, absolutely everything, is being thought about, studied, discussed, suggested, discussed, thought about…

The idea is to offer a refined environment that successfully marries a certain classicism with a modern edge, noble raw materials and the latest technology, design and comfort… A lot of questioning, research and discussion is currently going on to get the best result.

We’d like to show you a few images of the initial directions decided for the colours and materials.

photo : Julien Clapot

More news on the project soon!

When you own a chain of hotels, it’s normal to keep your eye on the latest trends in interior design, and when we first saw Anne Gelbard’s collection we instantly fell in love. Imagine how excited we were then when she invited us to visit her workshop…

all photos by jasonw excepted where marked


Anne set her space up about ten years ago after graduating from Paris’ École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. At the end of a leafy Parisian passage near Bastille, she has a modest-size room and an office across the courtyard, both brimming with inspirational books, fabrics that she has designed and… secrets!





Anne has developed her own technique for fixing metal (gold leaf, silver, copper, etc.) to fabric, paper and even feathers. It wasn’t long before that France’s top fashion designers started commissioning her to work on pieces for their collections.



Recently she has extended her haute couture techniques into the realm of what she calls home couture with a line of exclusive wallpapers, cushions, fabrics and decorative panels. A roll of wallpaper can cost around 200 euros (£157 / $310), although prices vary depending on the model. We especially like the flowery one with gold/orange tints. Beautiful stuff…

She also does incredibly lush decorative panels in the same sort of style…

This one’s just a prototype I think…

Anne is always very busy and we didn’t want to get in her way for too long, so we took as many shots as we could in a short time so as not to get under her feet. She is always very bubbly and smiley, although by the number of reports I’ve seen on the web and in fashion magazines, it would seem there’s a journalist with her every other day.


It was great to have a quick look into her creative world, and hopefully we’ll be seeing more of Anne in the near future. She does not have a shop or website of her own, but you can find her wallpaper at Saint Honoré Wallcoverings or Au Fil des Couleurs for example.

You’ll find more photos of the beautiful things we saw during our photo shoot at the rather lush Flickr gallery we’ve put together. Don’t miss it!

photo of Anne by Julien Clapot

By the way, we are not sponsored by Anne in any way, we just happen to love her stuff! If you do too, you can contact Anne on +33 (0)1 43 14 60 10.