Grands Boulevards Experimental stands at 17 Boulevard Poissonnière, where the 2nd meets the 9th. The 18th-century building went up on a former garden around the time of the Revolution and stands back from the boulevard behind a terrace, with a long passage down its side to the courtyard. It later held offices and apartments. The Experimental Group, which began with a cocktail bar in Paris in 2007, opened it in 2018 as Hôtel des Grands Boulevards and has since given it the group's name. Dorothée Meilichzon designed it, and the MICHELIN Guide gives it one Key.
There are 50 rooms in eight categories, from 13 to 32 m². The look runs through all of them: beds with a curtain canopy hung above a velvet headboard, lime-plastered walls, old linen, worn wood and aged bronze, plus air conditioning, a minibar and a coffee machine. The entry Petit Boulevard is 15 m² on the courtyard, and the Petit Boulevard Balcony 14 m² with a balcony over it. Saint Fiacre rooms reach 18 m² on the courtyard or the street, Uzes rooms are 21 m² facing the boulevard, and the Parisian Eaves rooms are 23 m² on the top floor. The Grand Boulevard suite is 32 m² with a sofa bed. Only the Uzes, Eaves and Grand Boulevard categories have a bathtub.
What the rate buys is everything outside the room. The restaurant fills the courtyard under a glass roof that opens in warm weather, with a bar at its centre and a French-Italian menu by Giovanni Passerini, the Rome-born chef of Passerini in the 12th, named best chef in Le Fooding's 2017 guide. The MICHELIN Guide lists it. It serves breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner, with brunch on Sundays at €45. Upstairs, The Shed is a small, planted rooftop bar looking over the neighbouring roofs, open every evening of the year from 5pm to 11pm, and from October to March The Shell, a copper and velvet bar dotted with shells, opens on the ground floor. On a February night the entry double is about €260, a fraction of what the city's palaces ask.
The trade is space and, on some sides, quiet. The Petit Boulevard rooms are small even for Paris, and room size is what guests raise most. Rooms on the boulevard hear the traffic, and the courtyard restaurant is hired out for private events, so on those nights ask for a room away from it. There is no spa, no pool and no parking. Book it to eat and drink well in the middle of Paris and use the room for sleeping, and pay for a bigger room if you plan to spend time in it.
