At 65 rue du Château d’Eau, a seventies bachelor pad turned four-star hotel, just minutes from the Faubourg Saint-Denis. Their Paris draws from François and Betty Catroux, Victor Vasarely, Serge Gainsbourg, and Yves Saint Laurent: black lacquer, smoked mirrors, thick carpets, and graphic chessboards.
A few months ago, I decided to steal away on a writing retreat. My friend Emilie was also in town, leaving the southern sun behind for a moment to meet a buyer in Paris.
Destination: 65 rue du Château d’Eau, in the 10th arrondissement. How to get deep in the démarche? Jonak slingbacks with heels, in pleated black patent leather. But that is beside the point. How does one absorb a place known to be filled with secrets? First, type Cinetek into your browser's address bar. Once there, search for Fantômas vs. Scotland Yard. You will find Louis de Funès’s signature grimaces—always a pleasure. More importantly, Necchi Architecture drew inspiration from the film’s iconography to bestow upon the Hôtel Château d'Eau, in their own words, a "dark, slightly menacing elegance."
Two ceramic panthers welcome you. And other ghosts linger, gentle ones. In the rooms, Betty and François Catroux. The 34 rooms recreate their Parisian pied-à-terre, where they lived surrounded by Vasarely. Naturally: glossy black lacquer, mirrors, checkerboard patterns, Op Art… Rooms with the air of absolute love and effortless nonchalance… Love by gentle dreamers and pragmatists alike. "He is the love of my life. My other half. He made my life a fairy tale," Betty Catroux once said of François.
And then there is Serge. His Parisian home breathed its own Gainsbourgian touch into the project: black, chic, and delightfully decadent.
Le retour d'un amour by Pierre Lapointe playing through wired headphones, a cigarette held delicately in hand, wrist bent. I waited for Émilie, patiently, under the watchful gaze of the panthers. Where to dine? Déviant, Le Collier de la Reine, Grand Café d'Athènes, or Camino? Stasera, italiano. Andiamo da Camino!
Laughter, conversations about love. Ah, the great fortune of lovers! How do they do it? Emilie knows. Explore love through her words, then return to curl up in the embrace of Betty & François. That night, finally, I wrote. What shapes does true love take? A divine apparition, a calculated step, lived in one's mind, a struggle, the scent of hope or despair. How do we recapture the depth of a foundational feeling?
FOOTNOTES
Watch Fantômas, André Hunebelle, 1964
Design Betty & François Catroux
Listen to Le retour d'un amour, Pierre Lapointe
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