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THE HOTELIER
JEAN-LUC MATHIAS
Ask Jean-LucMathias whether he is more hotelier or
designer and he laughs. “Let’s say I likemy town, I like
being a host and I want strangers to discover my city.”
Credited with transforming the Lyon hotel scene, Mathais
created the Cour des Loges, uniting and renovating five
buildings in Vieux Lyon, the Renaissance district. “What
really persuadedme to do the Cour des Loges was that,
as a Lyonnais and chauvinist about my town, I thought it
was a pity that Lyon had [Nouvelle Cuisine innovator] Paul
Bocuse for restaurants, but offered nowhere special for a
hotel. There was nowhere with a soul or particular charm –
they were simply places where one went to sleep.”
After selling that hotel, he opened the school-themed
Collège Hôtel, followed recently by the Ermitage Hôtel just
outside the city and he has plans for further accommodation
on Fourvière’s hill in Lyon. “When you are a schoolchild,
one dreams of voyages, of going to a hotel to do something
different from the everyday, to see the world. There are those
who come [to the Collège] with nostalgia, who go straight
to the blackboard, but also those,” he adds, with amalicious
glint, “who come here with badmemories as a sort of
revenge: ‘Here, at last, I can do nothing at school!’”
MATHIAS ON HOTELS
◆
Collège Hôtel (
5 Place
Saint-Paul; college-hotel.com
)
“A 1930s hotel totally redone
on a school theme with desks,
a blackboard, bookcases, old
maps and posters.”
◆
La Cour des Loges (
2 Rue du
Boeuf; courdesloges.com
) “This
remains a luxurious Relais &
Châteaux, with fine service and
a gastronomic restaurant that
has just gained a Michelin star.”
◆
Villa Florentine (
25
Montée Saint-Barthélémy;
villaflorentine.com
) “Housed
in a restored monastery, the
interior is rather neutral, but it
has a good restaurant, beautiful
terraced gardens and a pool.”
◆
Hôtel des Artistes
(
8 Rue Gaspard-André;
hotel-des-artistes.fr
) “This little
hotel is special because of its
owner, who also owns Brasserie
Georges, and its location by the
Théâtre on Place des Célestins.”
◆
Novotel Lyon Confluence
(
3 Rue Paul Montrochet;
novotel.com
) “This modern
hotel belongs to a big group,
but it’s by the river in the new,
dynamic Confluence district.”
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TRAVELLER