An exotic hotel night in Paris

The most sought-after hotel room in Paris is a shoe-box perched on a roof in the opulent 16th arrondissement.  There is no room service except for breakfast. The furniture is made of plastic and there is no television. Yet every day, 40,000 people are trying to book a night there.

The word novelty comes in here. The Hotel Everland is a room with adjoining bathroom which costs at least 333 euros a night but it's not really a hotel.

It is a 10-tonne art installation that has been perched since last November on top of the Palais de Tokyo, the Art Deco home of the contemporary art museum on the Right Bank. For its creators, the Swiss artist-designers Sabrina Lang and Daniel Baumann, Everland makes the guests part of the art.

You may already have heard about the Everland because the opening last November made a splash. I visited a couple of days ago and left with a mixed impression.

The main feature is the sense of isolation and the breathtaking view, a dream panorama of the City of Light.  Entering the Everland feels like landing in Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey,, made in 1968. Designed as "retro-futurist", all curves in day-glo green and blue, the airy pod is supposed to convey what the 21st century looked like in the 1960s, according to my guide. To the young who didn't know the pop art era, it must feel quaint and stylish. But, with its plastic sofas and wavy decor,  it reminds me a little too much of trendy airport design of that age, like a miniature of the old Braniff terminal at Dallas Fort Worth.   

One whole end of the room is a bay window that frames a stunnng view of the Seine and the roof-tops of Paris.  Barges cruise by on the river. To the right in front is the Eiffel tower. Then there is the gilded dome of the Invalides, further away the Pantheon and the Montparnasse tower.  You can even see the Sacré Coeur on Montmartre.
   
In keeping with the other-worldly feel, the only in-room entertainment is a '60s turntable and a collection of period vinyl albums.  In its previous stints in Swizerland and Germany, guests brought and left favourite old records as part of the exhibit. When I visited, Arlo Guthrie's classic Alice's Restaurant was top of the pile. The mini-bar, including its two bottles of Veuve Cliquot champagne, is included in the price, along with a good breakfast.

The museum says that guests love the ambiguous feeling of being part of an art work while spending an unreal night. You can only stay for one night,

starting from 6pm. You check into a nearby hotel and they take you up there. Most guests are couples, about half of them from outside France. "They seem dazzled. No-one seems to sleep much and few go out again until the next day," said the museum staffer who showed me around.  The exclamation marks in the visitor's book testify to the delights of this exotic capsule. Marc-Olivier Wahler, the Swiss director of the museum,  dropped by during my afternoon visit. He said that he has been overwhelmed by the response since Everland opened last autumn. "People say they will do anything, pay anything to get a night. It touches something in the imagination. They dream of it; they are almost crying over it,"  he said.

The hotel takes bookings for only two months ahead, opening reservations daily on the internet. Bookings are accepted on a random basis, Wahler said.  The project\hotel will stay open until at least until the end of this year. Wahler jokes that the room is an "anti-capitalist project" because its nightly rate comes nowhere near paying the costs of the installation. "It would take 10 years to break even," he said.    
   
The costs are 333 euros on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and 444 euros on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. It's closed on Mondays. You can see live pictures of the hotel on its webcam.      
            

Comments

[Joan Arles]

Even if it's cramped it must be wonderful to spend the night like that in the sky of Paris. What if it blows off the roof ?

[Blendi Progri]

It sounds fun.

[Marguerite.]

Je ne sais pas si j'aimerais dormir dans une boite a chaussures...
C'est vrai que la vue n'a pas l'air mal et la chambre non plus.
Est-ce qu'il y a une salle de bains et le chauffage ?

[Jorg Andersen]

I saw this "room" in Switzerland overlooking a lake. It's the location that gives it the charm, not the plastic space.

[Lily]

I have had this experience a few times before, but cheaper.

With http://www.homelidays.com/ - you can rent private rooms/studios/apartments, often at very original places, originally furnished and sometimes with a view. - It's a unique and much more affordable experience.

Once you're in that shoebox, all that counts will be the view, and the fact that you, too, have been in there.

[Emily]

Finally something positive and fun in Paris, merci! and if it blows off the roof you will have died in very spectacular and mediatic event and be famous forever (but we do have educated engineers here you know :)).

[Terry]

The interior looks like a bad "Logan's Run" motif. Or maybe the old "Rollerball". It's amazing how this post modern stuff so popular in the seventies now looks ancient.

[Jollyswagman]

I'm with Emily, what a great way to die! I'm sure the nation that can build the viaduc de millau can nail a shoebox to a roof!

[Richard Huxley]

I like it, although they could have done more with the styling.

Reminds me of Verner Panton's Visiona II room.

Complaints about it's size...well it's about the same size as the average person's apartment in Paris, so no wonder the demand :)

[Lily]

In this hotel you will be able to fly from Paris to Rome in 8h45, at 130 km/h:

http://www.switched.com/2008/02/04/flying-hotet-to-cart-passengers-around-in-total-luxury-at-18/

[Valentin]

Homelidays. There's a little flat in Sevilla that doesn't look bad at all - not expensive either. Interesting...

When I went on a two week trip to Denmark and Sweden two years ago, I based on this kind of website for lodging - they're referenced on the official tourist sites, so very easy to find.
I didn't even meet the landlords, and it was perfect.