Paris Art Hotel, rue des Écoles

A design address on rue des Écoles

Paris Art Hotel occupies no. 1 rue des Écoles, in the part of the 5th arrondissement between Cardinal Lemoine and Jussieu stations. We list it with the Mouffetard area, but the Arènes de Lutèce are about four minutes on foot, and the place Maubert about seven. It holds three stars from Atout France — the government-backed body that grades French hotels — and has 35 rooms.

The hotel belongs to Malone Hotels, a small collection in Paris and Geneva. What sets it apart is a named decorator: Paul Salas, who laid cement tiles “against the grain” so that they climb the wall behind each bed like a printed wall hanging. The hotel adds that original works by young artists hang throughout.

Rooms and services

Families are served by pairs of communicating standard rooms, listed at 25 m², for two to four guests. The Arabesque Suite has a balcony, and a balcony can be requested in some other categories. Breakfast is a buffet in the second-floor lounge, and from 12.30 p.m. a welcome buffet is offered free of charge, along with digital access to more than 7,000 newspapers and magazines.

There is no bar or restaurant — drinks are sold at reception — and no spa, although massages can be booked in the room through Paris Premium Massage. The hotel says plainly that it has no room for guests with reduced mobility. Drivers are directed to the Saemes Maubert public car park. The website does not mention air conditioning or pets, and a “romance” offer with champagne and a heart of rose petals appears among its packages.

Two metro lines and a row of neighbours

Cardinal Lemoine, on line 10, is about two minutes away; Jussieu, on lines 7 and 10, about four; Maubert-Mutualité, also on line 10, about seven. The place de la Contrescarpe is six minutes on foot, the Panthéon and the Collège de France eight, the Jardin des Plantes eleven.

Rue des Écoles lines up several three-stars within a hundred metres. Hôtel Quartier Latin, at no. 9, has 29 rooms with acoustic windows but no adapted room either. Hôtel Minerve, at no. 13, lists air conditioning, a room for guests with reduced mobility and paid private parking on request — three things Paris Art Hotel does not offer or document. Hôtel Vendôme Saint-Germain, on rue d’Arras about 100 metres away, also has air conditioning and a fully adapted ground-floor room. For a four-star with a spa nearby, Hôtel Résidence Henri IV, on rue des Bernardins, has only 13 rooms.