Terrace Apartment

An Italian Shoe Designer’s Paris Pied-à-Terre

This Parisian perch on rue des Petits-Champs is all curlicued 18th-century historical on the outside and glossy, glam, 1950s-inspired on the inside. The upper-level flat features a trellised terrace with a timeless Parisian checkered floor and a chic, renovated interior starring designer furnishings signed Jacques Adnet and Alberto Munari, accented with paintings by Tom Burr, Richard Aldrich, and Jonathan Meese.

This historically classified, right-bank apartment stands as a temple to mid-century design. Cool and elegant, the flat’s furnishings are a gallery of Italian and French pieces from the 1950s, accented by contemporary artworks like a mural tribute to the priestess of soul, the late Nina Simone. Sharing its swank neighborhood with the Place Vendôme, Opera Garnier, and the Musée du Louvre, this vacation home rental in Paris is located above the huppé bistrot, La Belle Époque, frequented by fashion, arts and cinema patrons, where guests could be treated to a hard-to-get reservation on request.

AROUND

Rue des Petits-Champs, a prestigious avenue running between Paris’ elegant 1st and 2nd arrondissements, was built on the King’s orders in 1634, though given its present name and form in 1881. Lined by a number of impressive mansions, the street extends between rue de la Banque and l’avenue de l’Opera in the heart of central Paris’ Right Bank. Traditionally, the north side of the River Seine was home to businesses, industrial magnates and wealthy entrepreneurs, and the Rive Droite also plays host to the city’s prestigious museums, the Louvre, Musée de Art Moderne, and Musée de l’Orangerie. Fashionable and manicured, the Right Bank offers grand avenues like des Champs Elysées, Avenue Montaigne, and the Place Vendôme, and cultural institutions such as the Opera Garnier and the Pantheon, but it also stretches into less originally elitist neighborhoods such as creative Montmartre, buzzing Les Halles, and dramatic Pigalle. 

Today, Paris’ Right Bank is equal parts rarified and hip, a swath of the beautiful city abuzz with concept stores and natural wine bars, pop-up galleries, experimental cafes, the cool Canal Saint Martin, vibrant splashes of street art, hip makers’ ateliers, the narrow ancient streets of Le Marais and Montmartre, and so much more. Closer to this vacation home rental in Paris, the passage Choiseul is the longest covered passage in the city, and at the street’s beginning, the Galerie Vivienne, one of the city’s most iconic covered passageways, shouldn’t be missed.

LOCATION

Paris, France, Nearest airport: Paris CDG (approximately 1 hour)

BEST TIME TO VISIT: Paris is always a good idea.