Nolinski Paris - Evok Collection
Go a level above at this luxury Bangkok hotel in the clouds
When famed interior designer Jean-Louis Deniot was handed the keys to 16 Avenue de l'Opéra, he described what he found as "classic office space, with white walls and drop ceilings." What he built in its place, inside an 1880 Haussmannian shell that had spent decades as commercial floor space, couldn’t be further from both its original design and the standardised office it became. It has become one of Paris's most quietly theatrical small hotels.
The conversion spans six floors and 45 rooms and suites, and Deniot's method was to design against every expectation the building's bones invited. Gone is the typical layout of a Haussmann flat. In it’s place is a grand spiraling central staircase that brings guests up to their rooms from the hotel's ground floor public salons, its walls painted with a hand-rendered mural evoking a stormy sky.
The reception is a single block of green Carrara marble, almost acting as a signpost of what to expect everywhere else in the building. Upstairs, the accomodations are styled as private apartments rather than hotel rooms. Each has its own colour scheme pulling from a palette of jade, raspberry, beige and burnt gold, with the classical moulding and neoclassical wood panelling of a Haussmann flat layered against waxed concrete floors and carefully chosen antiques.
The custom rug in the Grand Salon incorporates more than 40 colours, while the room itself anchors the first floor beneath silver-leaf ceilings, with a bronze fireplace and swivel armchairs built for long aperitifs. Everything has been agonised over, creating a major contrast between the other buildings on the street, a contrast that even spills on the hote’s facade.
Nolinski Le Restaurant is the hotel’s formal dining room, its interiors created by British designer John Whelan in a combination of Art Deco and 1970s references. Chef Philip Chronopoulos, who holds two Michelin stars at the adjacent Palais Royal Restaurant, leads the kitchen. The menu is made up of refined French bourgeois classics, so expect pot-au-feu and pâté en croûte rather than fried hotel comfort food.
Below the hotel, the myBlend spa sits off a luxurious 16-metre pool whose mirrored ceiling was added by Deniot to create a double-height effect, intended to counter any sense of claustrophobia of the the subterranean setting. Backlit panels evoke tree canopies. Add in a sauna, steam room, couples treatment rooms and an LED-focused treatment menu and this becomes a basement spa that feels like a must-do, rather than an obligatory add on.
Choose from Classic and Superior rooms to the Suite Josephine, the hotel's largest, with a balcony, custom furniture and its own particular palette.
The location is the cherry on the gâteau. The Louvre is a short walk south, the Palais Garnier is about ten minutes north, and the Palais Royal sits immediately behind the hotel. Rue Saint-Honoré, possibly Paris’ best shopping street, is within easy reach if your clothes suddenly clash with your room.
A lesser-known tip is that the neighbourhood directly behind the hotel is an active Japanese quarter (Little Tokyo). You can find authentic Japanese dishes easily, rather than settling for three day old sushi elsewhere.
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