September 10
The Index
1 result(s)
- Le Studio 22 - Le Maraishighlight
Marie and Catherine are pals. They met at a contemporary art fair in London and since then they do everything together.
They just opened Le Studio 22, a chambre d'hôte in the heart of the Haut Marais, a Parisian neighborhood whose galleries, edgy stores, good restaurants and general creative effervescence they find so inspiring.
On the other side of a former covered market that's being actively rehabilitated, behind a heavy porte cochère, the 22 rue de Picardie hides a great surprise, one of those Paris holds for the bold and the initiated. A large inner yard filled with trees where one forgets the noise of the street outside. Pure magic. Under the high boughs, the pavés lead to Studio 22. Inside it lie, within 22 m², all of the fundamentals that let one feel (almost) at home in Paris.
The decoration scheme is deliberately downplayed. Relying on discreet harmonies of beige and black, it manages to keep a low profile, and doesn't intrude on the customization imagined by a guest decorator - artist or designer, or both. Until September, the neutral tones of the Studio are sharpened by bright pink, gold and purple, whose ephemeral exuberance gives a festive tinge to the otherwise well-behaved bedroom. An elaborate mix of design (black métro tiles on the walls, a Chair One by Magis), cocooning (cushions a-plenty, art books and a host of refined attentions) and Parisian chic (Mariage Frères teas and treats imagined by the brilliant perfume chef, Michèle Gay); this place, obviously, is more than a mere chambre d'hôte.
And that is right. Marie and Catherine are pals, but they're also specialists. One tackles design, the other photography. They decided to make their own expertise and rich address book available to their guests: it's the concierge gone arty. On foot or on board a Smart car, in company or on one's own, and even for those who don't stay at the chambre, the hostesses at Studio 22 have imagined versatile runs through galleries, bookstores, shops and restaurants, peppered with interesting meet-ups. They're centered on the Marais but open to digression.
Catherine Soëtemondt and Marie Thévenin
Le Studio 22, Chambre d’art et conciergerie arty22, rue de Picardie Paris 3°
One night, 190€, week-end, 300€, one week, 900€
Gourmet snacks, 30€
To book a reservation or make an inquiry, write to Marie Thévenin
Marie, Catherine, where are you taking us? Maybe to one of these places:
Chic Cityrats (CCr): A common place?
Studio 22 (S 22): Our favorite place, Matali Crasset, 5 rue des Filles du Calvaire, Paris 3°
CCr: A place of perdition?
S 22: The faraway Douarnenez, in 2008, when the Mais de Quimper lead us there during its photo festival, which we love. This year it handled the theme of perte, or "loss"
CCr: A sacred place?
S 22: Without hesitation the small church of Saint-Bartholomew, in Chodovice (a small village of Bohemia), with its furniture designed by Jakub and Maxim (the duo of Studio Qubus), its Verner Panton chairs with the shape of the cross cut into their backs for the faithful, and Eiffel armchairs by the Eames for the priest
CCr: A place of predilection?
S 22: A bookstore of course, and right now our heart swings between that of the MEP (Maison Européenne de la Photographie), for the kindness of Edith, the true friend of all photographers, and the library close by, OFR, for its edgy, exacting choices...
CCr: A meeting place?
S 22: We can't wait for the opening of the very exciting "104" this Fall, a new Parisian space, transdisciplinary, a kind of Villa Medicis coupled with a Beaubourg (editor's note: large Parisian museum of modern and contemporary art)
CCr: A place to pass trough?
S 22: The Passage du Retz that shoots from the rue Charlot in Paris, because of its spirit, a place of temporary exhibitions, above all a place of questioning and investigation
CCr: A non-place?
S 22: Or rather several non-places, such as all of these anonymous spaces on which contemporary photograhers focus a lot of attention. Marc Augé studied them as part of his "anthropology of overmodernity": expressways, freeway junctions, airports, interchangeable hotel chains, large malls and service stations...
CCr: A secret place?
S 22: Our Studio 22, of course, sheltered from the outside world in its tree-filled yard, but right in the heart of the most arty and exuberant neighborhood in Paris. An exuberance we love and enjoyed in Pring's installation, when we gave her carte blanche for the studio's opening in June...
