Paris, France

Hôtel Providence Paris

Price per night from$226.10

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR214.26), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

A material world

Setting

Hip, hip Haut-Marais

Pierre Moussié, the man behind achingly hip hangout Brasserie Barbès, is impressively au fait with Paris’s moveable zeitgeist: his boutique stay Hôtel Providence Paris – a deliriously decadent pied-à-terre wrapped in an elegant Hausmannian shell – sits at the centre of a menage a trois of desirable arrondissements. Its neighbours include cultured dining hotspots of the Haut-Marais, shabby-chic Canal St Martin, and gallery-blessed Beaubourg. But you may be inclined to stay in for the evening, once you’ve seen the serious in-room cocktail bar and kit at your disposal.  

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A welcome cocktail on arrival

Facilities

Photos Hôtel Providence Paris facilities

Need to know

Rooms

18, including three suites.

Check–Out

Noon, but flexible, subject to availability. Earliest check-in, 3pm. Guests can store luggage at reception

More details

Rates are room-only, but a Persian breakfast is available for €15 a person.

Also

As in the theatres close by, a lot of behind-the-scenes work has helped to create a cosy, welcoming setting here. Ramdane Touhami’s bespoke tuberose perfume mingles with mint-scented candles and wood smoke from the fireplace in the lounge; flea- market finds are carefully picked to avoid pastiche, and a modern hip-hop soundtrack (Nas is a favourite) stops the antique building from feeling staid.

At the hotel

Free WiFi. In rooms: 27” iMac and Smart TV, fully-stocked bar and ice-maker, air-conditioning, and bath products designed by tastemaker Ramdane Touhami.

Our favourite rooms

It’s hard to pick just one of the personable rooms – vintage objets d’art, Seventies-style statement pieces and bonkers wallpaper (all lovingly scavenged from Parisian flea markets by Pierre’s wife Elodie Moussié and design-savvy friend Sophie Richard) are right up our boulevard. However, the Suite feels like the setting for a Nouvelle Vague party scene, complete with in-room bar and turntable. It has the biggest bathroom, too, and you can gaze on the Sacré-Cœur as you bathe. Superior Room 23 epitomises just-so Parisian style, with midnight-hued walls lined in velvet, a dramatic gold, art deco-style headboard and charming city views, encompassing the Théâtre de la Renaissance.

Packing tips

Bring a few trusty cocktail recipes jotted down in a notepad, in case bar-keeping duties befall you. Stash some earplugs in your purse for in case you decide to snooze while the rest of Paris parties.

Also

The hotel is well-equipped for guests with mobility issues: public areas are easily accessible, there’s a lift to all floors (numbers are announced on each floor), and there’s a specially adapted room on the first floor.

Children

Although it caters to grown-ups, the hotel does welcome children. Extra beds and baby cots can be provided in some rooms (free for under-13s, €60 a night for anyone 13-and-up), and babysitting booked for €20 an hour, for a minimum of three hours.

Food and Drink

Photos Hôtel Providence Paris food and drink

Top Table

Watch the stylish clientele come and go from a cosy corner table by the brasserie window; avoid those near the door.

Dress Code

Take your cue from your surroundings – locals are draped in pieces from Sandro, Maje and Vanessa Bruno, topped off with an intriguing chapeau.

Hotel restaurant

The informal brasserie spills out into the street, with a chatter-filled terrace. Interiors are dark and moody – the clubby downstairs dining room and bar is suitably soigné for date nights – and the owners’ impeccable taste is apparent in fashionable florals and elegant portraiture. Dishes are unfussy and typically French – meat and seafood fresh from the wood-burning oven, with puréed Charlotte potatoes or seasonal vegetables – with the option to add a sprinkling of truffle shavings. A slightly more decadent menu offers lobster rolls for lunch, foie gras with champagne-and-pear chutney for dinner and plenty of truffle-laced treats, and – from September to December – fat, flavourful oysters are a speciality. 

Hotel bar

The teeny lobby and reception leads on to the bar, so you can move swiftly from check-in to cocktails. A row of low-lit tables offers the romantic intimacy one requires in Paris within a setting that quickly fills with merry fellow guests and locals. It's wine list is frank – just four whites and reds – but this sparseness denotes a selective sommelier whose picks (an excellent Bourgeuil, a robust Bordeaux) will sate the fussiest and thirstiest of wine enthusiasts.

Last orders

Breakfast from 7am–11am. Lunches can be stretched out from noon to 3pm, and dinner and drinks run from 7pm to midnight.

Room service

Available from noon–3pm and 7pm–midnight. A member of staff will ascend to your room with a tray bearing snacks or the lighter meals on the restaurant menu (fine de claire oysters, foie gras, truffles on toasted farmhouse bread and cheese boards).

Location

Photos Hôtel Providence Paris location
Address
Hôtel Providence Paris
90 Rue René Boulanger,
Paris
75010
France

You’ll find Hôtel Providence on the border between Paris’ 3rd and 10th arrondissements, at the mouth of the increasingly cool Haut-Marais neighbourhood. It’s a 15-minute walk from Centre Georges Pompidou and a 30-minute walk from Place des Vosges.

Planes

Paris Charles de Gaulle airport is a 40-minute taxi ride from the hotel; British Airways, EasyJet and Vueling fly direct from major European cities, and Air France flies direct from the US and major destinations in Asia. Orly airport is a 40-minute drive south from the hotel, for EasyJet and Vueling flights. The hotel can arrange one-way transfers from either hub for €50.

Trains

The Eurostar departs frequently for Paris Gare du Nord from St Pancras International, London; on arrival, the hotel’s a 20-minute taxi ride away. Direct trains from Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne also terminate here; book tickets via Thalys. Strasbourg Saint-Denis, less than a five-minute walk away, is the nearest Metro Station; from Charles de Gaulle, ride the RER B line to Gare du Nord, then hop on line 4 and head south. A Paris Visite pass allows unlimited Metro trips on all lines (from €25.85 a person, for one-day passes).

Automobiles

If you’re ready to face labyrinthine alleyways, madcap ring roads and largely theoretical parking rules, then we wish you luck. The Metro is far less nerve-rattling than navigating the city by car. If you must drive, there’s a car-hire booth at Charles de Gaulle, and parking a 20-minute walk away on Rue des Trois Bornes (€29 a day).

Worth getting out of bed for

Overlooking Rue René Boulanger and the prop entrance of the Théâtre du Petit Saint-Martin, the hotel occupies a quiet corner of Le Marais, steps from the Porte Saint-Martin. Head east along Boulevard Saint-Martin to Place de la République where the Haut-Marais begins – or ‘Norma’ (a portmanteau of North Marais), as locals affectionately dub it. This constantly evolving neighbourhood is fast catching up with the – now a little too ‘bobo’ – Lower Marais; artsy and edgily cool, bon vivant pursuits are weaved into its tangle of alleys. Food, fashion and art loom large here; the Merci concept store stocks retro and au courant design pieces (pro tip: for more outré objets, head to Montmartre's L'Objet qui Parle) and Zoe Lee's shoes make moving sculptures of your feet. Pick up cheese at Fromagerie Jouannault and wine in Caves Bossetti then flop down on a grassy spot in Place des Vosges to enjoy. Paris’ oldest market, the 17th-century Marché des Enfants Rouges is laid out around Rue de Bretagne. Centre Commercial is another concept-store hero; stroll along Boulevard Beaumarchais (home to Merci, natch), Rue des Francs-Bourgeois and Rue de Marseille (where you'll find Centre Commercial), and you'll become slightly chicer by association. Revered labels – Maje, APC – display their wares in chic, atelier-style boutiques; and before you hit the Lower Marais, the Picasso Museum, and beyond that the Carnavalet MuseumCopp, present objets d’art in grand mansions. Canal Saint-Martin was eye-catching enough to earn a star turn in Amélie – cruises can be arranged through Canauxrama or Paris Canal. Beaubourg, in the 4th arrondissement, may lack the Haut-Marais’ oh-so-cool cache; however, as home to the Centre Georges Pompidou, Atelier Brancusi and bijou Passage Molière (home to the Théâtre Molière), it’s not to be overlooked.

Local restaurants

The Belle Epoque is alive and well at Le Bouillon-Chartier on Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, which serves an impossibly French menu (andouillettes, escargots, steak frites) in a former railway station; and more Gallic bistro classics await at Chez Jeannette on Rue du Faubourg Saint-DenisSeptime on Rue de Charonne, in the 11th arrondissement, is run by Passard-trained chef Bertrand Grebaut; reservations aren’t easy to come by, so if you secure a table go all out and order the fabulous five-course tasting menu. For light meals – and liquid lunches – Vivant on Rue des Petites Ecuries serves small plates to enhance its lengthy list of natural wines. If you're on the same street and craving carbs instead, try Da Graziella for pizza perfection. Fans of Big Mamma's London trattorias Gloria and Circolo Populare can see where it all began with a trip to Libertino for Italian classics with a huge side order of unabashed fun (pasta served in a hollowed-out cheese wheel, anyone?). Shabour (Hebrew for hangover, apparently) has imported an Israeli chef to do great things with Levantine food in the French capital; and Elmer is a similarly hotly tipped hangout. 

 

Local cafés

Holybelly is a very popular brunch joint in Paris, a 10-minute walk north from the hotel; for pancake stacks and eggs with myriad accompaniments, arrive early and be prepared to queueNanashi on Rue Charlot crafts beautiful bento boxes and sushi platters; and Café Charlot, across from the Marché des Enfants Rouges, dishes up coffee, just-squeeze juices and light brasserie fare. Chocolatier Jacques Genin’s fruit-infused caramels and chocolates (flavoured with tonka bean, chestnut honey, bergamot, basil and other curious concoctions) have won the pâtisserie-weary hearts of Parisians; or stockpile the cocoa goods being made since 1761 at A la Mère de Famille.

Local bars

Copperbay down the road turns cocktails into almost-too-pretty-to-drink art forms. And Andy Wahloo is as outlandishly decorated as the hotel, with bright-pink neon signage and fern wallpaper – pick your poison from the little cubby-hole shelves behind the bar, or choose from the cocktail menu of martinis, negronis, sazeracs and other tried-and-true classics.

Reviews

Photos Hôtel Providence Paris reviews
Céline Bossart

Anonymous review

By Céline Bossart, Trendsetting traveller

Stepping into Hôtel Providence is like setting foot in a Parisian storybook commissioned by Maison Kitsuné and illustrated by Wes Anderson’s moody, demure sister (if he had one). Dim lighting, dark textured walls, and a large painting of a plump aristocrat greet me as I approach the check-in desk. There are rich velvets and vintage lamps aplenty. I instantly feel at home in this bastion of cool on its sleepy corner perch in the hip Haut-Marais neighbourhood. The current coolest hangout in Paris.

I’ve arrived early, and my room is not yet ready (such are the woes of Red Eye life). The lovely girl at the front desk offers to store my luggage – I hand over my suitcase and camera bag. She threatens to take selfies while I’m gone (playfully, or perhaps not-so). I tell her to please be my guest.

What to do while in check-in purgatory? The hotel’s bar and terrasse are so inviting, but the explorer in me begs for a walk to République. I know I’ll get some quality time in at the hotel bar later this evening. I breakfast at a pâtisserie on a side street adjoining the main Place, wander for a bit, and wait until an appropriate time to déjeune at my favorite restaurant nearby, La Pharmacie, for a prix fixe lunch of bavette and a few other requisites in between, chased with coffee. I wonder silently how many forms of bread I will eat today and kill a bit more time by ordering a crème brûlée; I shatter the almost-blackened top very slowly and with extra care. My room must be ready by now.

After an extended and wayward stroll, I arrive back at the hotel (somewhat dazed due to jet lag and steak frites overload), and am indeed granted access to my tiny, darling room, which is equipped with a breezy balcony, smart barware, and the same dark romanticism I’d first encountered downstairs. I am torn between choice a) purchasing ingredients for a simple cocktail, so as to utilise the shiny copper accessories and serious ice cubes in the freezer, or choice b) seeking out a nice bottle of wine to savour at the table for two overlooking the street. This proves impossible in my trying state. I opt for the lobby bar instead, where the mixologists can guide me.

A lone table at the end of a neatly lined row seemed to be waiting just for me, so I take a seat and allow my glazed-over eyes to roam the small menu of wines by the glass. There are four reds, and with this slight chill, I’m most certainly in a red mood, so I embark on a gastronomic journey: I request each one in the order listed. Glass number one: a Bordeaux. It’s toasty, sort of spiced in curious ways. I shamelessly take clichéd ‘wine glass on table in Paris with a cobblestone street in background’ Instagram photos. 

Glass number two: a Ventoux. It’s unpretentious, earthy, tart, with a similar spicy bite to its predecessor. I would like to meet the person who curated this wine list. The waiter returns. I get the sense that he is proud of my ambition and waiting to see if I will actually order the next two. I don’t disappoint.

Glass number three: a Bourgueil (my favorite). By this time, the waiter and I are best friends. I tell him I’m from New York and that I love this Bourgueil. He tells me that he loves New York and gives me a bottle of the Bourgueil.

Glass number four: a morgon. What time is it? I might as well stay for dinner at this point.

Dinner: well, damn. The eatery is now buzzing and nearly every table is filled. I feel like a (somewhat drunken) explorer who’s stumbled upon a quiet, untrodden patch of land only to have it invaded by the masses moments later. While nibbling on a plate of 18-month-aged Ibérico ham, I generously decide to let these people share my glorious discovery and claim it as their own. Then I anxiously await my faux-filet of Blonde d’Aquitaine steak with veal juice while lucidly dreaming of meat as red as its liquid counterpart, a postcard setting on one side and a background of brilliant wallpaper on the other. Here, I am perpetually full and aesthetically sated.

Tomorrow, I will try the whites.

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