The Costes-group Marais 4-star — thirty rooms designed by Jacques Garcia in 2001, in his most committed neo-Gothic-Byzantine register, on a quiet street ninety seconds from the Hôtel de Ville and three minutes from the Centre Pompidou.
"The Costes group's smaller, less-photographed Marais sister to the Hôtel Costes — same Jacques Garcia, same patterned dark interiors, half the rate, none of the lobby celebrity. Garcia called it his most personal Paris room."
The Bourg Tibourg sits on a single Marais street that takes its name from a 13th-century manor — bourg, settlement; Tibourg, Thibaut Notier the original owner — between rue de Rivoli and rue du Roi de Sicile. The current building dates to the 17th century and operated as a small inexpensive hotel until 2001, when Jean-Louis Costes — the elder of the Costes brothers behind Café Costes (1985), Hôtel Costes (1995), and the present-day Costes restaurant group — acquired it and commissioned a complete reimagining from Jacques Garcia, the same designer responsible for the Hôtel Costes interiors that had defined Paris hotel design through the late 1990s.
Garcia's Bourg Tibourg is, by his own description, his most personal Paris room. Where the Hôtel Costes is operatic and red, the Bourg Tibourg is intimate and patterned: Byzantine-mosaic-tile bathrooms, neo-Gothic painted ceilings, dark William Morris-style wallpapers, hand-tasselled curtains, fringed lampshades, and bedheads upholstered in deep ruby velvet. Thirty rooms across five floors run from compact Standard categories at 14 square metres up through Junior Suites at 28 square metres. The rooms are small — that is the trade — but every soft surface is custom and the bathroom alone is a Garcia photograph in every category.
There is no restaurant. The lobby tea-room handles afternoon tea with Marage Frères and Pierre Hermé pâtisserie; the Bar Bourg Tibourg serves cocktails until 1 AM in a hexagonal room walled in painted-leather panels. Breakfast is served in a vaulted-cellar room one floor below the lobby. The Costes group's culinary register handles the all-day need within five minutes — the Café Beaubourg in the Centre Pompidou plaza is six minutes; the Costes Mathis in rue de Ponthieu is ten minutes by metro; the Marais's serious Bourg Tibourg-area restaurants — L'Ambroisie (3 stars on Place des Vosges, six minutes), L'As du Fallafel three minutes — handle the rest.
The position is the Marais's quiet centre — a one-minute walk to rue de Rivoli (Mariage Frères flagship and the BHV department store), ninety seconds to Hôtel de Ville and the Seine, three minutes to the Centre Pompidou, six minutes to Place des Vosges, eight minutes to the Picasso Museum. Métro Hôtel de Ville (lines 1 and 11) is ninety seconds for direct access to the Louvre, the Marais, and the Champs-Élysées. Travellers who want a Costes-aesthetic Paris stay without paying Costes-rate prices — and want a Marais postcode — will find the Bourg Tibourg the right answer.
A Marais honeymoon at the Garcia-designed register without the Hôtel Costes spotlight. The Junior Suite is the right booking; the Bar Bourg Tibourg at midnight; the rue de Rivoli walk to the Louvre at sunset; the Place des Vosges arcade dinner. The Garcia bathrooms photograph as well as anything in his Paris portfolio and the bar is the room you will remember.
A long weekend that wants Marais-Garcia-Costes triangulation without paying full Costes tariff. The Superior Double is the sensible booking; the Junior Suite for a milestone year. The hotel will arrange a private corner of the bar for the dinner and the Pierre Hermé macarons appear in the room without being asked. Centre Pompidou is three minutes for the post-dinner walk.
The smallest serious hotel in the Marais — and the most consistently photographed by visiting designers and editors. Solo travellers eat at the bar, breakfast in the cellar, and walk the Marais by day. The Standard at 14 square metres is sensibly priced for a single occupant; the Superior Double is the better category for a multi-night stay. The hotel's small front desk is attentive without being theatrical.
19 rue du Bourg Tibourg
75004 Paris
France
Hôtel de Ville 90 sec; Centre Pompidou 3 min; Place des Vosges 6 min; Metro Hôtel de Ville (lines 1/11) 90 sec; rue de Rivoli BHV 60 sec
30 rooms across 5 floors
Standard from €290/night
Superior Double from €350/night
Deluxe from €420/night
Junior Suite from €560/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
17th-century building; small Marais hotel until 2001; Costes Group acquisition + Jacques Garcia interiors 2001
Bar Bourg Tibourg (cocktails to 1 AM)
Lobby tea-room (Mariage Frères, Pierre Hermé)
Vaulted cellar breakfast room
Jacques Garcia neo-Gothic-Byzantine interiors throughout
Costes Group ownership
Lift to all floors
From €290/night. The Junior Suite books six to eight weeks ahead for spring and autumn weekends; Fashion Week (March, October) tightens the entire 30-room inventory.
Book This Hotel →The Costes group's flagship — 84 rooms by Jacques Garcia, the most photographed lobby in Paris.
Maisons Pariente's 4th-arr 5-star — 61 rooms by Martin Brudnizki, Boubalé restaurant, indoor pool.
Bambi Sloan's Joséphine-Bonaparte Marais 4-star — 24 rooms ninety seconds from Place des Vosges.