The Hôtel de Sers is open to travellers from all over the world since July 2004. Thibault and Thomas Vidalenc, the managing director and architect respectively, have steered through the rebirth of this exceptional location, the latest luxury establishment in the “Golden Triangle” of Paris (Champs Elysées, Concorde, Montaigne) for business and leisure customers seeking a contemporary lifestyle offering the luxury of irreproachable service.

The adventure began in 1999, when Brigitte Bertrand transferred the management of the Hôtel le Queen Elizabeth to her younger son, Thibault Vidalenc. Worn by the weight of time and the work undertaken by its neighbour, the George V, the Hôtel le Queen Elizabeth needed to find a new lease of life. Thibault Vidalenc avoided the easy option which would have consisted in a decorative cladding and decided to renovate the whole establishment completely. The choice of architect was very rapidly decided : Thomas Vidalenc, a young architect who had just finished his architecture studies, proposed the project that met with the approval of all the players involved.

Together, Thibault and Thomas decided to travel to all the most high profile establishments in the world to confirm their aspirations.

This empirical consultation prevented them falling into the trap of anecdotal decoration and helped them specify the fundamentals indispensable to international business or leisure customers seeking contemporary comfort.

Attentive to the original atmosphere of this mansion house belonging to the Marquis de Sers, the first owner of the premises in the mid-nineteenth century, Thibault and Thomas Vidalenc decided to bring out the essence of the architecture, concealed and eventually stifled by successive renovations since 1925. The whole structural organisation of the hotel had to be designed while avoiding pastiche, luxury based on historic false pretences and ostentatious details, often used as excuses to cover an uncontrolled technical constraint. They immediately adopted the stances of clarity, sobriety and comfort to respect the architectural coherence and offer the general perspective a feeling of intimacy, inseparable from the concept of the hotel.

Thomas Vidalenc adopted an almost neutral style, focusing on the quality of volumes and the self-evidence of the layout. The hotel, targeting an upscale clientele, offers 52 rooms, 4 suites, 2 panoramic suites and 1 apartment.

Each room focuses on the essentials: clear volumes, light that modulates on three levels, understated furniture with plain fabrics. Bright suites are structured into three parts: a hall, a lounge and a bedroom opening onto the en-suite bathroom. On the 7^th and 8^th floors, two exceptional 60 sq. m. panoramic suites offer a view of Paris from the Sacré-Coeur to the Eiffel Tower.

Warm and cold shades offset each other permanently, creating an easy, unpretentious momentum that inspires calm and fluidity. The public areas follow this line with a gallery of nineteenth century portraits with their watchful and welcoming attitudes, the witnesses of a not-so-distant past. Special care taken with details reveals open architecture which nevertheless maintains the intimacy of these temporary homes. “Like meetings with other people, travel and discoveries, a hotel is part of a journey. The visitor appropriates space, integrates another dimension through a sort of contemporary melancholy”. Such is the approach taken by architect Thomas Vidalenc, who, after having analysed the building, studied its history and successive conversions, decided to adopt an architectural style that focuses on the quality of volumes and self-evidence of the layout.

The Hôtel de Sers is a haven of peace where everything is designed to increase the pleasure of the traveller: the memory of the place, the clear and limpid atmosphere, the warmth of service help create the emotion of a place instilled with memory and the contemporary energy of Thomas and Thibault Vidalenc.

                                                    Rates for 2008 - 2009

 Rates are quoted per room per night, VAT and service included.

To see select photos of Hotel de Sers, please click here.

To see a map of the area surrounding Hotel de Sers, please click here.

For more information or to schedule your stay please contact:
Small & Elegant Hotels, International
9425 Whispering Sands
West Olive, MI 49460
TEL: (616) 844-6000 / FAX: (616) 844-6042
E-Mail: res@smallandeleganthotels.com

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