In the 8th arrondissement of Paris, just up a little hill from the Champs-Élysées, an ambitious new hotel has opened. It’s called the Hotel Norman, after the American graphic designer, Norman Ives, and it’s the latest selection for Room Key, The Daily Beast’s series on exciting new hotels.
The hotel has just 37 rooms and suites, and so is a more personal type of property. Some have views of the Eiffel Tower, while roof-top suites look out across the city.
The hotel was designed by French architect Thomas Vidalenc, and when we say he was ambitious it’s because he filled the property with a dizzying array of modernist influences. Brazilian pieces sit alongside French and American pieces from the mid-20th century, and on the walls hang a variety of geometric prints and American paintings from the 1970s. For such a small space, the ground floor fits a lot. Tucked behind a heavy green portiere is the front desk, and around the corner from that is a small library with a fireplace.
Just off the lobby is the new home of Thiou, a famed high-end Thai restaurant that long-held court next to Invalides but now calls the Norman home. The dishes are always impeccable (it’s famed for its “Tigre qui pleure” or “Crying Tiger,” which is a spicy dish of strips of beef marinated in a chili sauce), but what will blow you away are the cocktails–which can sometimes be hard to get in Paris.
The property is the fourth for hotelier Olivier Bertrand, who also has the Relais Christine in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the famed Saint James in the 16th, and the just-opened Chateau des Fleurs. He will soon add a fifth, the Hotel Balzac, just up the street from the Hotel Norman. While the Balzac is traditionally historical French from the outside, the Norman is more modern, with two wings clad in smooth stone joined on an axis of curved glass. The balconies all feature green canvas awnings and plants.
The rooms are spacious and, for those tired of cliché Parisian design, they feel fresh. Large windows cast natural light on colorful rooms with large geometric carpets, unconventionally shaped mid-century furnishings, and rosewood headboards.
The hotel’s best amenity, though, might be in its basement. Despite the hotel’s diminutive size, it still has a pool and sauna. The pool is sleek and elegant, lit to a clear pale blue and wrapped in a warm brown marble with a backsplash of stuccoed caramel-colored walls. In an alcove next to the pool is the sauna and a wood bucket hydrotherapy shower (i.e. it can dump a whole lot of freezing cold water on you instantly).
Located on the north side of the Champs-Élysées, the hotel is a ten-minute walk to attractions like the Musée Jacquemart-André and 20 minutes from the Parc Monceau.
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