Don’t Call 1 Place Vendôme the Chopard Hotel
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Make yourself right at home at 1 Place Vendôme.
Chopard is bringing the famed hospitality of the Scheufele family to Paris with the opening of its long-awaited five-star property on the corner of Rue Saint-Honoré and Place Vendôme.
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Entirely revamped by Paris-based architecture firm Pierre-Yves Rochon, this 18th-century listed building erected by Louis XIV’s secretary Pierre Perrin has been returned to its former glory as a six-story mansion.
With only 15 suites and rooms spread across 28,000 square feet, 1 Place Vendôme is more town house than template for a hotel franchise — there isn’t even anything that looks like a reception once a visitor steps inside.
Instead, there’s a monumental Murano glass necklace by artist Jean-Michel Othoniel taking pride of place opposite an 18th-century fireplace to welcome guests, who will then head to the library one flight up.
So despite the curling Cs on its wrought iron gate — and the presence of the house’s Parisian flagship, reopened in early 2023, on the ground floor — don’t call this the “Chopard hotel.”
“As a family, we decided that since we have an address that is so prestigious and storied, it would be a shame to stick a name on it,” said Karl-Fritz Scheufele, the third generation of the jeweler’s leading family and son of copresident Karl-Friedrich Scheufele.
“And the idea wasn’t creating plenty of Chopard hotels and brand it to the hilt,” he continued.
Reminders of the brand are therefore kept light throughout. Take the mosaic that spans a whole wall in the winter garden — once the boutique’s watch repair atelier — echoing the Animal World high jewelry collection released in 2010 for the house’s 150th anniversary.
Recreated under Caroline Scheufele’s supervision, it features the mouse holding a heart, butterflies, salamanders and monkeys, motifs that will “speak immediately to someone who knows the history of the house, but can be simply admired for its beauty by someone less familiar,” he said.
Overall, 1 Place Vendôme was almost a decade in the making, after Chopard acquired in 2014 the Union Hôtelière de Paris, a longstanding company that owned the building and operated the previous establishment.
Renovation alone took almost five years, owing to pandemic-driven delays but also to the extensive work needed to rehabilitate the building, bringing it up to standard but also returning some of its features, like the original levels, after the previous occupants — another hotel — created intermediate floors.
“If you look across the street to our neighbors [the Louis Vuitton store], you can see that the levels [of the near-identical buildings] match once more,” he pointed out.
This brought back the 17-foot ceiling height on the second floor, considered the noblest one in classic French architecture, but also revealed the wood beams that are now a feature of the Rubis suite.
Differences in floor level necessitated the addition of small steps here and there, but these perpetuate the charming image of apartments that have been lived in by successive generations.
So does the array of art that includes 1960s Marc Chagall lithography. The younger Scheufele attributed the selection to his father, who brought out pieces from their family home and “all of a sudden really wanted to put them in the hotel,” like the Andy Warhol print now hanging in the Ruby suite. “It wasn’t about letting go — he really wanted this to be in that particular place,” the son said.
While there won’t be a secret elevator leading down into the boutique or a “ring for diamonds” button in suites, there are plenty of breadcrumbs that lead back to the Chopard universe.
Rooms, for example, are named after gemstones and precious materials, as well as navigation instruments or even astronomy, both fields that led to watchmaking.
That provided plenty of inspiration to meet the family’s brief of keeping the historical cachet of the address while giving the impression of a home that lives with its times.
“Each [room] is unique, so that’s what allowed us to lean into a more contemporary side for some of them,” Scheufele said. “That mix between the two is what will give the place its charm.”
Take the Jade room, which takes its cues from the mineral’s connection to East and South Asian ornamentation but also to the aesthetic that was imported to Europe through early exchanges with the region. Tones of black and red nod to the codes of lacquerware, motifs of heron and flowers to the aesthetic glossary from across the Silk Road. Applied to classically French rooms, the result is evocative but not pastiche.
A host of artisans toiled on every detail, ranging from gold leaf patinated to look handsomely aged — and catch the light just so — and bespoke wallpapers or hand-painted frescoes by specialist De Gournay to the sculpted wood panels of the Appartement Chopard, by Ateliers de la Chappelle, a noted millwork specialist located in western France.
Also congruent with the idea of a home is the way 1 Place Vendôme approaches dining, placed in the hands of chef Boris Algarra, an alum of the nearby Mandarin Oriental under Thierry Marx.
Rather than have a restaurant, an all-day snacking menu is available, as well as a more elaborate French cuisine offering. Seasonal products are preferred, but there will always be sure-fire hits such as club sandwiches. Everything can be served anywhere in the hotel. “It’s really about being in a private home and being able to eat whatever you’d like — even fine cuisine — at any time,” Scheufele said.
Sadly for those hoping for a new spot to pop in for meetings or a drink in the pinnacle of high jewelry, the living spaces and bar — including a hidden cigar speakeasy — will be open only to hotel residents.
The privilege of being among them comes at a price: from 1,400 euros for a 350-square-foot room, breakfast not included, while a night the 1,400-square-foot Appartement Chopard starts at 14,000 euros — when it’s not taken over for the jeweler’s events during Paris Fashion Week and its couture counterpart.
These place 1 Place Vendôme squarely among the cadre of elite hotels that have opened in recent years, including the Bulgari and Cheval Blanc properties, both owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
For those hankering for a fine dining experience, 1 Place Vendôme’s chef’s table set in the underground wine cellar will seat up to eight, open to bookings on a first-come, first-serve basis, with bespoke menus by Algarra.
And why not create encounters between hotel guests by offering to share a table for an evening? “I really like the idea of community travel and having people dine together with strangers,” Scheufele said. “Luxury is also being able to create a dialogue with clients and pushing hospitality that little bit further.”
For the Scheufele family, hospitality is par for the course in life as in business.
There’s the confectionary that put copresident and creative director Caroline Scheufele on the Cannes Film Festival map as “the girl who makes the chocolates,” an anecdote she is fond of sharing, but also offering catering in their Baselworld booth that was so scrumptious retailers would find an excuse to lunch there throughout the fair.
There’s also Geneva-based restaurant Le Caveau de Bacchus, acquired in 1999 by wine lover Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, who already had a wine trading company. He later acquired the Château Monestier-la-Tour wine estate in the Southern Bergerac region, which now has organic certification.
For Karl-Fritz Scheufele, hospitality came from the idea that helming a company like Chopard hinges as much on business acumen as it does on being able to address the needs of high jewelry and watchmaking’s exacting clientele.
Off he went for experiences at famed Zürich’s five-star Baur Au Lac and at Ritz-Carlton properties in Canada — “and I loved it,” he recalled. He followed with a degree at the EHL Hospitality Business School in Lausanne and a master’s degree at the ESCP Business School, between its Paris and London campuses.
More than a new business venture, the younger Scheufele described 1 Place Vendôme as a reflection of his family’s interests.
Case in point, the array of books spread throughout the library. Titles hint at different family members: watches, micromechanics and classic cars for his father; gardens, art and jewelry for his aunt, and Japanese architecture, gastronomy and tea for himself.
There’s also a tome on icons of hospitality, the younger Scheufele adds after a beat. “Perhaps one day 1 Place Vendôme will be one of them. But for now, we’d just like to open,” he quipped.
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