I’ve been raving about that little boutique beauty, La Belle Juliette, and yet I am not quite finished.  There is something about great design that just feels right.  If you analyze it too much you can always come up with a number of decisions that you wouldn’t have made.  The red laquered chair, the cherubs that have a little too much of that Victorian Age feel for your liking, the hallways that are a little too dark – don’t do it.  There is brilliance in the whole.  The whole person, the whole place, a whole idea.  Everything and everyone has imperfections.  It adds to the intrigue, eradicates sterility, and increases our overall comfort, for we know that we can live up to it, and in a place like that.  When everything is in order, we feel that something is off, a sensation that we are not welcome, that we don’t belong.  Great design makes you feel like you are coming home, even if its to a place that you have never been to before.  A calm washes over you, it delights and surprises, and makes you want to return again and again.  Such was the experience at La Belle Juliette for me.

Belle of the Ball No. 2

The color selection included a variety of greys, which it is no secret I adore, a series of pastel hues; pink, violet, pale greens, aquas, and tiffany blues, metalic accents, and the interesting decision to include bold red furnishings.  No room that I had access to utilzed less than three or four paint colors in a single space.  Sometimes subtle differences, others not.  Color can be hard to get right, particularly in these dangersous quantities, which is why we see so many interior designers stick to a very neutral palette.  It’s safe, it’s clean, it’s unopinionated.  It’s boring.  There – I said it.  I find it very boring.  To my eye, La Belle mostly got it right.  I know this because I can see in my minds eye the lovely color combinations they visioned, and a warm happiness spreads through me.

Belle of the Ball No. 3

I realize the appeal won’t be there for everyone.  No worries.  There are thousands of hotels from which to choose in Paris.  I hope that your next visit takes you, and that you experience the same childlike delight, that La Belle J. gave me.  Wherever you find yourself, don’t miss out on a visit to La Spa de La Belle Juliette.  www.spa-belle-juliette.com.  The very best masage I have ever had, with absolutely not a single qualification.  Simply the best.