Hoosta Magazine

From a classic 3-star hotel to a boutique design hotel…

Not easy when one belongs to the three times generation of hoteliers, to turn the family business into a contemporary and arty landmark, where artists, photographers and painters, exhibit throughout the year. Yet that’s the challenge Olivier Breuil, general manager of Hotel Elysees Mermoz, has decided to take up by renovating completely the 3 star family hotel (renovation to be completed by early 2010). His bet? Making Elysees Mermoz a living area, an art gallery where artists he loves can invite themselves for a retrospective for example. An idea that became reality thanks to the chic but relaxed atmosphere of this boutique hotel on a human scale. After studying engineering and spending 4 years in Norway, he returned to his roots: the hospitality business.

An artist’s soul …

Olivier Breuil himself admits to share half his time between the hotel and the workshop where he indulges in his passion: painting. Between the exhibitions at the hotel whenged every 2 months, he reveals his paintings to guests, abstract works of large colorful format, almost alive, sometimes difficult to present in the hotel. Last winter, he has exhibited in the gallery of Pascal Lorain, rue Jean Mermoz. A first successful experiment that allowed him to believe in his art, especially when he sold one of his paintings to the French designer Pierre Cardin. He says to be inspired by great painters such as Van Gogh or Manet, but he remains heavily influenced by American abstract painting by Willem de Kooning. Frédéric Prat with whom he worked and Pierre Dunoyer are also role models for him.

Paris, I love you …

As a real Parisian, he likes to wander around the city at random, got carried away by discoveries and surprises, without planification. The advice he gives to his guests: “go by foot from the hotel and stroll down the Champs-Elysees to the Tuileries, walk along the Seine river and you will always find something to do.” And then there are the terraces of cafés where you can calmly sit down and read your newspaper, go buy a theater ticket, have dinner in one of the many restaurants in the neighborhood of the Madeleine and attend the theater. With such diversity it becomes difficult to choose only one activity.

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