HOME
Press Release for Hotel Baume
I present to you the press release for Hotel Baume, which has recently opened its doors and changed its name from the Jardin de l’Odéon Hotel. I found myself highly intrigued by the approach of the architects in the renovation of this hotel. For the hotel décor, they took inspiration from 6 different personages.
Exclusive Interiors by T&T, an agency of interior design and decoration, was born from a tête-à-tête between Thibaut FRON and Thierry MARTIN. They are experts in blending forms to create environments that are 100% exclusive. Specializing in concept design, spatial arrangements, and furniture design, Exclusive Interiors by T&T assesses challenges of various scales. Thibaut and Thierry have resolutely interpreted the history of several character figures to construct the ambiance and décor of the 6 themes that can be found across the Baume.
Located in the heart of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, a stone’s throw from Place de l’Odéon, the Baume is a 4-star hotel featuring 35 rooms, with a comfortable elegance that is resolutely immersed in an ambiance evoking the 1930s. Here one can find elements strongly reminiscent of the decoration characteristic to this era: wooden veneer in Macassar Ebony, shagreen, satin, and moire fabric.
Working through the story of 6 characters and, as a result, 6 decorative themes, the rooms develop unique ambiances with materials of high-quality and contrasting styles. The level of detail, refinement, and the quality of the décor elements echo the modernity, flow, and positivism of this time period.
A circle of friends (3 girls and 3 boys): Suzanne, Odette, Claudine, Charles, Henri, and Serge, all students at the Lycée Montaigne secondary school, who would gather after class in the hall of Jardin de l’Odéon, a student residence hall run by the parents of Yvonne.
Why choose the Baume?
Vicki Baum was a contemporary Austrian novelist from the Art Deco period. Following a brief career as a concert harpist, she plunged into writing and published the novels Grand Hotel (1929), Hotel Shanghai (1939), and Hotel Berlin (1943). She left Austria to try her luck in Hollywood and became a celebrated screenwriter. The storylines of her novels reflect the stories behind the conception of this hotel: groups of individuals whose paths intersect and overlap over the years.
Hotel Baume pays homage to her legacy.
The Lobby
Standing uniquely apart, the lobby shares only a few thematic links with the other rooms: paneling in Macassar Ebony that recalls Gentlemen’s Clubs, as well as gem-inspired lighting that evokes finely crafted jewelry. The gray and mustard color scheme bring back the 1930s, with a touch of shagreen, a material highly characteristic of this period. The furniture’s shapes take inspiration from this epoch, but always with the modern comfort of today.
Hotel Baume
Hotel Baume the reception
The Objects
Several of these objects have been salvaged, such as the powder compacts displayed behind plexiglass in the lobby. The jewelry pieces on display in the glass tables of the Jewelry Rooms are the creations of Anna Rivka. The engravings on the Style Rooms are original works for the “1932” collection from Pernet by Madame Jeannest. Several of the vases feature the theme of returning from Egypt, a very fashionable theme from this epoch.
Hotel Baume
The Stories, the Ambiances
6 ambiances, 6 individuals.
A circle of friends and parallel lives that come to intersect repeatedly over the years. Each person in their own way forms the image of an era: the 1930s. This was the time of the expansion of the art of living, of aesthetics, and of pleasure, in a France lodged between two wars. This was the time when jewelry, fashion, perfumes, designs, clubs, and films flourished. Hotel Baume casts a lovely glow on 6 ambiances resolutely anchored to this Art Deco period.
The Circulations
Perfumes: A passageway, an in-between space that connects the themes of the rooms.
Around the theme of Perfume—the iconic product of the 30s—and olfactory creations from the era, the color black, at once chic and soothing, is sublimated by textures: ostrich skin in matte and glossy finishes.
The olfactory signature of the hotel holds a stronger presence here. Images of perfumes from the era guide visitors toward the doors of the rooms, the design of which borrows inspiration from no less than…the bottle stopper of a Chanel perfume.
Each character of the story is introduced along the entrance of each floor.
Embodied by the figure of Henry: The son of a chemist, he discovered his passion for perfume while working for Drom in Munich. It was at Drom that he would go on to develop his signature fragrance, which would never formally be released to the public: “The Balm of Baume.” Weary of life in Paris, he later became a horticulturist on the coast of the Marne.
Hotel Baume, the team
The Rooms
Fashion: A fitting room of refined, feminine elegance
Dressed in moire—the fabric that made its comeback in 30’s fashion—and original designs, the rooms of this theme display a color palette of gray, gold, and rose. In the style of an haute couture house, the seat cushions here are padded, the lamps play a clever nod to the era’s flappers, and a mirror with fake feathers recalls the creations of Schiaparelli.
Embodied by the figure of Claudine: Claudine is a beautiful young girl who suffers nonetheless from a tiny flaw on her face. Her remarkably athletic figure will allow her to become a model for the Scandal girdle, allowing her, thankfully, not to display her face.
Hotel Baume
Jewelry: A jewelry box, chic and slightly exuberant
This theme is characterized by walls featuring wavy golden panels, a mirror bursting with dozens of pearls, and wall lamps strung with pearls. The selected furniture recall wedding rings, and the jewelers’ display cases are filled with fine jewelry.
Embodied by the figure of Odette: Odette, a wildly unpredictable girl, is obsessed with jewelry, possessing an unbelievable collection of them. She maneuvers a marriage with Charles, but their union is not a happy one. She ultimately takes her own life in a luxury hotel along the Côte d’Azur.
Hotel Baume
Cinema: the transition from black-and-white to color on a film set.
In the beginning, there were the stars of the big screen in black and white, directed in an array of settings representing their profiles. Then came color, with growing streaks of beige, gray, and dusky rose. The wallpaper is reminiscent of film reels; a mirror seems to take inspiration from film slides; and the lamps could be easily mistaken for studio projectors.
Embodied by the figure of Yvonne: Yvonne dreams of the theater. She lives in Hotel Saint Sulpice (today Hotel Baume), where her parents are proprietors. She meets an American woman in the Jardin du Luxembourg who brings her to the United States to act as a nurse for her children. Thanks to her resemblance to Norma Shearer, she becomes hired as her double in the George Cukor film Women. Her last name is given in the credits as Baum.
Hotel Baume, courte pointe style club
Architecture: A graphic universe, sharp, contrasting, and edgy
Art Deco evolves and discovers its new pulse in America. The walls are covered in wallpaper that summons up the peak of the Chrysler building; the seats are upholstered in leather; the furniture and lighting are designed by designers who will go on to make history. Geometry and clean, angled lines stretch their way across the curtains.
Embodied by the figure of Jean-Charles: The son of a highly affluent family that resides near the Jardin du Luxembourg, Charles dreams of becoming an architect and designing Villa Baume. But his dreams are cut short by the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
A graphic universe, sharp, contrasting, and edgy
The Club: A plunge into the intimate clubs of the raging era
In this epoch, soirées continue uninterrupted in the hushed clubs, where the leather-stitched walls are thrown in relief against the Macassar Ebony. Blue, orange, camel—here is the reinvention of an atmosphere at once masculine and chic, where photographs and careful details in the furniture evoke the lively years of the clubs of Shanghai.
Embodied by the figure of Serge: Serge is the handsome one of the lot. A renowned party animal, he goes on to befriend Josephine Baker, for whom he will partially finance La Revue Nègre. He leaves for Shanghai and becomes the Manager of a Grand Hotel.
These 6 themes form their presence across the various floors and wide arrays of rooms at Hotel Baume.
Available in 6 different categories, the 35 rooms of Hotel Baume offer nonetheless the same level of services throughout, differing only by their surface appearance.
Laurent Delporte, an editor and conference speaker, is a strategic expert in the sector of hotels. A visionary, he brings his unique look on hotels in service to the decision-makers in the industry, whether to enhance the development of new projects or strategic visions.
Laurent has visited and audited over 350 hotels across the world and also participates in mystery visits to provide quality control for the world’s finest hotels.
