Uniquely designed boutique hotels: when sleeping becomes an experience

Christine Robalo | 2/19/25, 9:14 AM

Sleep? A formality, a physiological need, a waste of time for insomniacs and a blessing for dreamers. But in some hotels, it's an adventure. Places that transform the night into an aesthetic parenthesis, where design is not content with being beautiful: it confuses, fascinates and transports.

There are the classic hotels, with their sober, beige-toned rooms, overpriced minibars and televisions that nobody ever turns on. And then there are those that are the stuff of ideas laboratories, boasting singular architecture, transforming corridors into art galleries and rooms into cultural experiences. These establishments plunge into settings designed to arouse curiosity, sometimes even to shake up aesthetic certainties. Here, the night is not experienced, but contemplated, experienced, and becomes a work of art in itself.

Château de la Resle: design meets history

It's impossible to know what attracts the most attention here: the majestic volumes of the château, the contemporary art collection that adorns every nook and cranny, or the works of art that pop up in the park like an open-air exhibition. In this 17th-century residence, shrouded in ivy and entirely redesigned by Johan Bouman and Pieter Franssens, design is not an afterthought. In the living rooms and bedrooms, classic furniture blends with signed pieces and antique objects, in a sober palette that leaves plenty of room for works of art. Just ten rooms, divided between the château and its outbuildings, each with its own identity. Some have a grand-century feel, with period fireplaces and Louis XV wardrobes, while others take a more contemporary approach, with vast open spaces and refined design. In terms of well-being, the aseptic spa is swapped for a Finnish sauna, a 45°C Turkish bath and a swimming pool surrounded by nature, to prolong the experience. A place conceived as a living gallery, where you can take the time to admire a painting or the light streaming through a louvered window.

Price: From €298/night (DDP not included).
Where to stay? Lieu dit, La Resle - 89230 Montigny-la-Resle. Tel. : 06 86 11 29 22
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48° Nord Landscape Høtel, a hotel immersed in Nordic architecture

The 48° Nord Landscape Hôtel has established itself as an architectural UFO in the heart of a protected forest in Breitenbach, Alsace. Neither a chalet nor a traditional farmhouse, but a series of 15 rough-hewn wooden "hyttes", inspired by Nordic refuges and imagined by local protagonist Emil Leroy-Jönsson and Norwegian architect Reiulf Ramstad. Perched on stilts or blending into the vegetation, they almost seem to emerge from the ground, with their green roofs and wide windows opening onto nature. Everything here is conceived and designed according to an eco-responsible logic, starting with the locally sourced wood used to build the "hyttes". inside, Scandinavian furnishings, light wood, omnipresent light and, in some cabins, a private sauna or outdoor Nordic bath. The table follows the same philosophy: products sourced within a 48 km radius, worked by chef Frédéric Metzger into an inventive, local cuisine. A no-frills hotel, designed as an immersive experience where architecture and landscape become one.

Price: €137/night (DDP not included).
Where? 1048 route du Mont Sainte Odile, 67220 Breitenbach. Tel. : 03 67 50 00 05.
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Domaine des Andéols, a theater in the heart of nature where art plays the leading role

just a few kilometers from Gordes and Roussillon, where Provence seems to have been painted with golden light and cypress trees, Domaine des Andéols is the perfect place to discover a world of art.s, the Domaine des Andéols stretches between centuries-old olive trees, lavender fields and sun-warmed stone bastides. A landscape worthy of a Cézanne painting, except that here, the artist is very much alive. Olivier Massart, known for revolutionizing the catwalks of Paco Rabanne and Yves Saint Laurent, and for celebrating the centenary of the Eiffel Tower, has swapped the catwalk for a different kind of scenography. Since its opening in the late 90s, this family estate, once owned by his sculptor grandfather, has become a lively artistic laboratory. Each room, each villa is a statement of intent, an ode to experimentation where contemporary works, signed design pieces and raw materials sublimated by the patina of time cohabit. The 19 rooms and detached houses on the estate are not all alike: one houses a four-poster bed with a latticework pattern worthy of an experimental theater set, another displays a Rothko painting, while a third plays the contrast card with a palm tree enthroned in the center of a living room populated by architects' furniture. The Domaine des Andéols has been designed as a creative bubble, where you can sleep among the works, dine under a 400-year-old plane tree and attend an exhibition mounted in collaboration with a Parisian gallery.

Price: €137/night (DDP not included).
Where? 84490 Saint Saturnin lès Apt. Tel. : 04 83 88 33 77
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Le TOO Hôtel: a design vessel suspended above Paris

It doesn't float, but it's close. Perched 120 meters high, atop one of the Duo Towers designed by Jean Nouvel, the TOO Hôtel plays the balancing act with an assumed architectural insolence. Here, everything is designed to embrace a vertiginous view of the capital, from the Seine that meanders at the foot of the building to the Eiffel Tower, sometimes visible from the very bathtub of the rooms. At the helm of the experience is Philippe Starck, who designed not only the interior architecture and furniture, but also every detail - right down to the dumbbells in the rooms. The effect of weightlessness is accentuated by slightly inclined panoramic windows, while mirrored partitions multiply the space. The decor? Sleek, beige, enveloping minimalism, punctuated by surprising details - including dumbbells - as if lifting weights became as natural a gesture as raising an elbow at the TOO TacTac Skybar. Yes, you have to go even higher, to the 150 m² terrace, to sip a cocktail while flying over the capital.

The 139 rooms and suites are fluid and open, with a bed in the center of the room as if floating above the ground. The show continues on the dining side with Le TOO Restaurant, housed in a suspended glass cube with a golden ceiling and fantastic frescoes by Pierre Monestier. In the kitchen, Benjamin Six composes a score where Asian influences flirt with revisited classics.

Price: €262/night (DDP not included).
Where? 65 Rue Bruneseau. 75013 Paris
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Brach Paris, a raw building reinvented by Philippe Starck

In the stuffy 16ᵉ arrondissement, where daring decor often boils down to swapping beige for taupe, the Brach Paris comes to shake up the codes. At the helm is Philippe Starck, who is transforming a former postal sorting center from the 1970s into a 7,000 m² five-star hotel, halfway between Bauhaus, Dadaism and well-mastered surrealism.

Here, wood, leather, concrete and glass coexist in an ambience that juggles ethnic chic and arty cocooning. The seating, inspired by the 1930s, comes from Pierre Frey, while the carpets and frescoes in the restaurant bear the signature of Ara Starck, keeping the business in the family. In the rooms and suites, 59 in all, literary critic Emmanuelle de Boysson has chosen some thirty novels, a selection destined to be renewed with each new literary season. When it comes to well-being, there's no question of being content with a sauna and hammam hidden away in the basement. A huge gym inspired by the boxing halls of yesteryear welcomes old-school muscle-builders as well as those who prefer more advanced disciplines. And for recovery? A 22-meter swimming corridor, a Himalayan salt grotto and, of course, a sauna and hammam.