A discreet former Belle Époque maison close on a quiet street between Pigalle and Saint-Lazare, restored to 20 rooms and suites by Jacques Garcia — burgundy velvet, gilded mirrors, a hammam and ten-metre underground pool, and one of the most theatrical small luxury experiences in Paris.
"There is no sign on the door, no name on the bell, and a single red lantern marks the entrance — the Belle Époque-era code for the building's original profession. Inside it's twenty rooms of the most committed Jacques Garcia velvet in central Paris and an underground pool you reach through a candlelit corridor. As proposals go, you would have to work to do worse here."
Maison Souquet occupies a Haussmannian townhouse on Rue de Bruxelles in the 9th arrondissement — the discreet southern edge of Pigalle, halfway between Saint-Lazare and the Place de Clichy. The building was originally one of the city's licensed Belle Époque maisons closes, the term used for the legal pleasure houses that operated in Paris between roughly 1850 and the 1946 Marthe Richard law that closed them. After 1946 it was used for several decades as residential apartments before being purchased and restored as a hotel in 2014 by the Maranatha group, with interiors by Jacques Garcia — the same designer who shaped Hôtel Costes, the Mark Hotel in New York, and the entire Maranatha "Maisons Particulières" portfolio in Paris and Saint-Tropez.
The 20 rooms and suites are named after famous courtesans of the period (Otero, Liane de Pougy, La Belle Castiglione, Cléo de Mérode) and decorated in deep saturated colours — burgundy, oxblood, midnight blue, malachite green — with gold-leafed ceilings, layered velvet, antique tapestries, and the Garcia signature Napoléon III-revival furnishings. The Deluxe Doubles run smaller (around 18 square metres) than the Paris five-star norm but the Junior Suites (around 30) and the Two-Bedroom Suite (over 50) compensate. Every bathroom is in Calacatta or veined dark marble with Hermès toiletries; the larger suites have full freestanding baths and separate showers.
The piano-bar lounge on the ground floor — fireplace, candlelight, deep Garcia-style banquettes — is the public room and the breakfast room. There is no full restaurant; light French dishes are served in the lounge through the day and evening, and the concierge handles reservations across the surrounding neighbourhood. The basement is the property's surprise: a candlelit corridor leads to a 10-metre swimming pool with mosaic walls and a hammam, both of which can be privatized for two by reservation. Treatment rooms handle massages and traditional Moroccan-style hammam rituals.
The location reads as a contradiction on paper — Pigalle is two minutes' walk away — but the street itself is residential and quiet, with no late-night noise. Saint-Lazare RER and metro is six minutes away, and the Opéra Garnier and Galeries Lafayette are 10–12 minutes on foot. Maison Souquet does one thing extremely well — Belle Époque theatre at small-luxury scale — and is the right answer for couples who specifically want that brief. It is not a business hotel and it is not a family hotel; it is a proposal, anniversary and honeymoon room above all.
Maison Souquet is the rare Paris honeymoon hotel where the property does the heavy lifting — the privatized pool-and-hammam booking, the Junior Suite Otero or Liane de Pougy, the piano lounge at midnight. Couples who book it are buying the theatre, not the location. Three nights here works better than five. Add a fourth at the Bristol or the George V if the Saint-Honoré shopping is also on the brief.
If the proposal location is the proposal, Maison Souquet is the most theatrical single-room booking in Paris under €1,000/night. The Two-Bedroom Suite plus a privatized pool-and-hammam booking — the staff handle the staging quietly — is the standard arrangement. Walk to dinner at one of the Pigalle bistros (Bouillon Pigalle, Le Pantruche) or stay in for service in the suite.
For an anniversary that wants a different Paris than the Place Vendôme version — older, quieter, more theatrical, more Garcia-velvet than gilded-mirror — Maison Souquet is reliably the right answer. Junior Suite at €700/night is the standard category; the privatized pool-and-hammam is the differentiator that no surrounding boutique can match.
10 Rue de Bruxelles
75009 Paris
France
Place de Clichy metro 4 minutes; Saint-Lazare 6 minutes; Opéra Garnier 12 minutes; CDG 35 minutes by car
20 rooms and suites
Deluxe Double from €400/night
Junior Suite from €700/night
Two-Bedroom Suite from €1,800/night
Breakfast €25
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Restored 2014; Jacques Garcia interiors
Maranatha "Maisons Particulières" group
10-metre indoor pool (privatizable)
Hammam & treatment rooms
Piano lounge with fireplace
Light French menu (no full restaurant)
Hermès toiletries · Free Wi-Fi
From €400/night. The Two-Bedroom Suite and the privatized pool-and-hammam booking should be requested at the time of booking — both run with limited availability through the season.
Book This Hotel →A five-room private mansion behind a hidden gate in Montmartre — the closest comparison in mood and discretion.
The other major Jacques Garcia property in central Paris — louder and busier.
Twenty rooms in the Saint-Germain townhouse where Oscar Wilde died — Garcia interiors, an underground pool.