Maison Proust

A Belle Époque house in the Haut-Marais

Maison Proust stands at 26 rue de Picardie, in the north of the 3rd arrondissement, a short walk from the Carreau du Temple and in the Enfants-Rouges quarter. It belongs to the Collection Maisons Particulières. Atout France — the national agency that grants hotel stars in France — classified it five stars on 1 March 2023, for 23 rooms, and the MICHELIN Guide gives it one Key.

The theme is set by its name. Jacques Garcia’s decoration recreates the salons of the Belle Époque, and each room carries the name of a person from the writer’s world. Our sources say nothing about the age of the building at no. 26, so neither does this page.

Pool, salons and bar

Of the seventy hotels in our database, only four list a pool: Maison Proust, Le Grand Mazarin, Les Bains and the Boudoir des Muses, where it belongs to a private spa. Here the Spa La Mer pairs its ten-metre pool with a hammam and three treatment rooms. Guests in the two-bedroom suite get private access to the Salon d’Eau, which groups the pool, the hammam and a treatment area.

Food follows the salon model rather than a restaurant one: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner are served in the lounges until 1 a.m., and the cocktail bar opens at 5 p.m. On Fridays, Colin Field takes his place behind the bar. The “Jardin d’hiver” is an indoor salon, not a garden.

What you will not find on the website: air conditioning, a gym, parking, pets, rooms adapted for wheelchair users or a terrace. For a five-star hotel, the official classification standard does require air conditioning in the rooms; the rest is worth asking about before booking.

Rue de Picardie and the neighbours

The Marché des Enfants-Rouges, the covered market founded in 1615, is about two minutes away, with its food counters. The Musée Picasso, in the Hôtel Salé, and the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature are each about eight minutes on foot; the Musée des Arts et Métiers about ten.

The nearest five-star alternative is Experimental Marais, six minutes away on rue du Temple: larger, with 43 rooms, but with a Roman bath rather than a pool and no family rooms. Closer still, two four-star hotels — 1K Paris and La Chambre du Marais — are about three minutes away. Le Grand Mazarin, whose heated pool is eight metres long, is in the 4th, around sixteen minutes on foot; our luxury hotels in Le Marais compares all eight.