Madison Hotel

A prestigious history deeply intertwined with the history of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood

In the beginning...

Acquired by the Hurand family in 1985, the history of this hotel, built in 1925 on the site of a small wooden building that housed the cabaret of Charpini, a famous artist of the time, is closely linked with the prestigious history of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, a capital of Parisian culture and intellectual life.

Originally designed with 70 small rooms, this hotel hosted prestigious guests such as Albert Camus, André Malraux, Jean Giono, Edith Piaf, Jean Mermoz and Boris Pasternak, author of Doctor Zhivago.

In the 1920s, Saint-Germain-des-Près burgeoned with the energy of the Surrealist movement: Breton, Aragon and Derain, soon joined by Éluard, Giraudoux and Marx Ernst, all set up shop at the Café de Deux Magots.

A landmark for artists, writers and intellectuals

Gide, Malraux - who stayed at the Madison Hotel during the winter of 1937, Éluard, Picasso, Françoise Giroud, Saint-Exupéry, Mauriac, Paul Morand... are some of the illustrious regulars who founded the reputation of the Literary Cafés of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. In the spring of 1940, Albert Camus stayed at the Hotel, room 65, to finish writing his novel "L'étranger" which was published in 1942 by Gallimard.

A neighborhood full of life!

During the occupation, life seemed to hibernate as intense clandestine activity got under way. The hotel was requisitioned by the German Army, before being occupied by the French navy, following a brief passage with the FTP, the armed branch of the Resistance. Like the Lutétia, the hotel would also house those who had been deported on their return to Paris.

After the war, the neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Près came back to life and this fertile melting pot for the arts once again regained its rhythm, now with even more gusto. The existentialism of Sartre, who arrived at the Deux Magots to write with Simone de Beauvoir at 10 am every morning, coexisted with the American jazz played in the cellars of Saint-Germain in a new lease of life, flavored with the desire to forget and new-found freedom...

A new lease of life

 

When the Hurand family bought the hotel in the 1980s, it was in disrepair and sorely in need of major renovation. The hotel was redesigned and the rooms reorganized so that the Madison now had 52 rooms instead of 70. Again renovated not long ago by architect Denis Doisteau, the Madison Hotel now embarks on a new chapter in its history.

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