Relais Hôtel Vieux Paris

Story and photography by Susan McKee

vieux paris hotel entrance

Relais Hôtel Vieux Paris
9 rue Gît-le-Cœur
75006 PARIS
Tél : 33(0)1 44 32 15 90
Fax : 33(0)1 43 26 00 15
E-mail: information@vieuxparis.com

You can’t beat the location of Le Relais Hôtel Vieux Paris. Hidden on a side street in the Latin Quarter, it’s just a couple of blocks from the Saint Michel metro station for line 4 (and also an RER station on the B line). It’s a five minute walk from Île de la Cité and Notre Dame and a half-block from the Seine.

Each room is decorated differently (albeit with charming Old World décor) and there’s free WiFi, but what kicks this four-star hotel clearly into the luxury class is its staff. The front desk clerk – and there is only one at a time in this boutique property – really cares that you get the information you need to make your trip to Paris the best ever.

This trip wasn’t my first jaunt to the City of Light, and I’ve stayed in a dozen different hotels over the years. Some were the huge, impersonal properties beloved of groups but a little sterile for the solo traveler. Some were in desperate need of updating (chipped bathroom tiles and upholstery worn through to the backing). One recent hotel – in a newly renovated property famously decorated by a hot interior designer who shall go unnamed – had plumbing so inadequate that a morning shower erupted to flood not only the bathroom, but made water channels across the bedroom carpet as well.

No such problems at Le Relais Hôtel Vieux Paris. With its Latin Quarter address, it’s right in the middle of the action -- with a twist. It’s situated on a little-traveled side street with no bars, nightclubs or restaurants to wake the weary traveler.

The décor, although in traditional French style, is bright and fresh. The windows actually open, and, when I was there, pots of scarlet geraniums were placed in the window boxes. They more than made up for the lack of view out the window. The street is very narrow and crooked, so even though we were maybe a block from the Seine, it wasn’t visible. Of course, the traffic noise from that busy road along the river wasn’t in evidence either.

This is a boutique property: there are only 12 rooms. My husband and I had a one that was small by American standards (not by Parisian), but it included a luggage rack, small desk, flat-screen television, full-length mirror, a shower in the tub and – best of all – free wireless internet access (something this writer thinks should now be standard in hotels). The amenities, by Sutton & Foster, included a shoe polish sponge, vanity set and sewing kit alongside the expected soap, shampoo and bath gel.

The front desk clerks speak English and are a fount of information on everything from how to buy a museum pass to where to buy macarons. No, no --not those coconut cookies popular in the U.S., but the sweet pastel confections of egg whites and ground almonds that have taken Paris by storm. You’ll find them everywhere, sold in hushed shops like fine jewelry by haughty clerks who admonish “no photos”. Individual macarons are expensive enough to qualify as an indulgence – sometimes 2 or 3 euros per piece (my favorite were at Pierre Hermé). Whatever you buy, eat ‘em the same day you buy ‘em. They don’t keep, and they definitely don’t make the transit back across the Atlantic in any condition worth eating (and, yes, I speak from personal experience).

Here’s a bonus for those of us who’ve read the writers of the Beat Generation (not to mention French history). The underlying structure, built in 1480, belonged to the Duc de Luynes, uncle of Racine, and the Duc d'O. In the 1950s and ‘60s, American poets adopted the site and is the same group that created the "Beat Generation" (think: William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso and Allen Ginsberg). Of course, many remodelings later, none of them would recognize the place. Only the ceiling beams are said to date from the 15^th century.

A tip: Don’t eat breakfast at the hotel. It’s pricey, and there are so many places to eat within a couple of blocks that it’s more fun to wander a bit before deciding where to buy your croissant and café au lait to start another wonderful day in Paris.

(Editor’s Note: In the late 50’s, when the hotel was only known as the Café/Hotel 9 rue Gît-le-Cœur, Bill Burroughs completed there his Naked Lunch while residing at the run down, 42 room-at-that-time property, together with other members of the “Beat Generation”. Greg Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Harold Norse, Peter Orlovsky and many other now famous names lived in almost abject poverty there under the care of Mme. Rachou, the proprietress, who encouraged artists and writers to stay at the hotel and even at times permited them to pay the rent with paintings or manuscripts, which she never kept as she thought them worthless. I happened to be one of the not famous starving artists that spent time at the “CAFE VINS LIQUEURS”, Mme. Rachou’s bar, where I met a number of the American writers, as well as at “Chez Popoff” the other infamous hang-out bar of the Left Bank).

Issue:
January
2012