Vivre la France – Hotel Mama Shelter / Paris / France

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The Mama Shelter Hotel in Paris.

Contributed by Francois Jobard.

Arriving @ CDG.

Its not really in the center but you will find it near the famous Père-Lachaise Cementery. The founders are ready to shake the St. Blaise neighborhood of the 20th Arrondissement into the French version of a Berlin, London, New York style district. The designer: Philippe Starck, whose Royalton in New York, St. Martin’s Lane in London and Delano in Miami Beach have never been surpassed. Mama Shelter, though far less grand than most of Mr. Starck’s hotels, is as inventive and exciting as the best of them.
Mr. Starck’s challenge was to make the most of tiny spaces. The rooms are a bit small but quite funky, including silence, a super-comfortable bed and flawless electronics. The focus of the hotel is the ground-floor restaurant and lounge, with Mr. Starck’s inventiveness. There’s a huge communal table with TV screens beneath its glass top, light fixtures made from bird cages and so on.
The location gives you a new perspective on Paris; the design gives you a new perspective in general, Mama Shelter is a fabulous place to stay.

We enjoyed it.

Take a look: Mama Shelter

Culture connoisseurs are happy many museums are in Paris.

A nice tip is to linger at the Musée Fragonard, which epitomises French luxury, or stroll along the aisles of Musée de la Vie Romantique – a source of inspiration for great artists and writers such as Chopin, Georges Sand and Delacroix.

On completion of the refurbishment, the hotel boast 268 guest rooms including 29 suites across five floors. Originally designed by architect Juste Lisch to accommodate visitors flocking to the 1889 Exposition Universelle, the current restoration project, led by London based designer Richmond International, balances historic legacy with modern influences, in a timeless yet contemporary style.
Guest room design detail will focus on soothing colours, as well as delicate and refined materials which pay homage to the traditional, yet chic, Parisian style. Hilton Paris Opera will conjure images of Paris’ Golden Age, with the magnificent entrance hall adorned with frescoes, Corinthian colonnades, imposing original balustrades featuring chandeliers set with crystals and mosaic flooring. We enjoyed a new bar inspired by the great French fashion designer Christian Lacroix.

Our resto tip in Paris: Arpege

Alain Passard is for me one of the greatest chefs of France, and has held three Michelin stars since 1996. In his earlier career he became a two Michelin star chef at the tender age of 26 at Casino d’Enghien, in 1986 purchasing an existing restaurant (l’Archetstrate) from celebrated chef Alain Senderens, and renaming it Arpege, after the perfume from Lanvin.

Passard caused a major stir in culinary circles in 2001 when he announced he was going to concentrate on vegetarian dishes, and although there are now meat dishes on the menu, vegetables are still the star. Passard gets his vegetables from his own dedicated farms and gardens in the northwest of France, shipped daily by train to the restaurant: they are of superb quality.

Arpege has a nice exterior in the 7th arrondisement of Paris. The dining room is simply decorated, with relatively small tables placed quite close together. The room is carpeted with some wood panelling along the walls. The only real luxury in the décor is the set of Lalique glass insets in the wood panels. The full-blown tasting menu was our project.

The wine list stretched over 30 pages, and was all French other than a single page of wines from elsewhere in the world, plus a few German wines. Mark-ups were not as high as in many top Paris restaurants, though they varied considerably through the list. Growers were top-drawer, although the dessert wine list was surprisingly limited, with a rather small choice by the bottle and just a single wine by the half bottle and that one being Yquem.

A set of little tartelettes appeared as we looked at the menu. A tartelette of Parmesan and celeriac featured superbly delicate pastry and celeriac with terrific flavour, as had tartlets of black radish. However even better were the tartlets of beetroot and parsnip puree, smoking of the beetroot in the process giving a fabulous flavour to the puree. This was an impressive start to the meal, immediately showcasing vegetables. Bread was excellent, made with natural yeast and served with butter from St Malo.

A long-term signature dish at Arpege has been the “hot cold” egg. An egg shell is the presentation vehicle for warm egg yolk with sherry vinegar and maple syrup, spices and a little salt, covered with a layer of cold cream. The key to the success of this dish is the quality of the eggs used and the perfect balance of the vinegar with the sweetness of the syrup, together with the blend of hot and cold temperature elements. A deceptively simple dish, and yet a lovely start to the meal

Next was a carpaccio of scallops with black truffles, pretty presented as alternating discs, garnished with rocket leaves and drizzled with olive oil. The scallops were of dazzling quality, their superb sweet flavour pairing well with the earthiness of the truffles. The best dish of the meal now arrived. Ravioli of vegetables rested in a consommé of Jerusalem artichoke and celery. Such a simple description does not do justice to the stunning purity of flavour that came through in the consommé. The ravioli was of flawless texture, the mixed vegetable filling of the pasta again showing off a quality of vegetables that is hard to imagine.
Yummy.
Next was a Parmesan gratin of onions with black truffle, another famous dish here, and another whose raw description does not do it justice. The Cevennes onions used here are the finest of all onions, having a mild, sweet flavour, here caramelised to further enhance their natural sweetness, the flavour combining beautifully with the Parmesan and top quality black truffles: terrific.

Next was zander with lime oil and green tea, with an orange and carrot mousseline. The fish was perfectly cooked. This was followed by a “vegetable couscous”. Yellow beetroots, red beetroots and radishes were given an extra textural element of semolina flavoured with nutty argan oil. Amongst this was a particularly impressive vegetarian sausage, the filling of red vegetables and spices creating an effect reminiscent of the taste of a meat sausage. Hmm.

The next dish was lobster from Chausey Islands (Normandy), which was presented at the table prior to the meat being extracted from the shell and served. The lobster was cooked in vin jaune made with a Jura wine and flavoured with truffle, served with smoked potato. As one might expect by now, the cooking of the lobster was flawless, the meat tender and having lovely flavour, the smoked potato and truffle flavours balancing the shellfish well,

Cheese is supplied by Bernard Antony of Alsace, and it was interesting see that Arpege does not serve a full cheese board, but selected just a couple in perfect condition, Moelleux du Revard and Gruyere in this case, served with more smoked potato. The main dessert was a magnificent chocolate millefeuille with exceedingly delicate pastry, a lovely and rich yet delicate dessert.

What is impressive to me is the simplicity of the cooking at Arpege. Many dishes have just two or three elements, but employing impeccable ingredients and put together with flawless technical skill. There is nowhere to hide with such cooking, but time after time in this meal I was struck by the remarkably purity of flavour of the dishes; here cooking is stripped back to its essentials. What a meal.

House & Hotel Magazine loves the Arpege. A nice experience.

My last tip: