THÉÂTRE DU RENARD

It is quite hard to appreciate the façade of this building at its true value, with such high density of circulation in Renard Street. One is obliged to stay on the sidewalk facing the building to be able to notice all the sculpted details. The Art Deco style “theatre du Renard”, only a few blocks away from the Georges Pompidou Cultural Centre and the Paris City Hall is loaded with history: successively a hotel, Syndicate of French Grocery, then a theatre, it reveals yet another face today. The project’s principal ambition is to transform it into a hotspot of luxury Parisian nightlife, with a very extravagant couture style. As soon as the entrance, one is given the tone: the modern music-hall walls constellated with 1,50m diamond-shaped smoky mirrors, are spilling onto the walls of the main room, above the woodworks. They allow a generous point of view – almost indiscreet – of the room, continuing the idea of representation.

The main room, today a restaurant, is lofty and dominated by two passageways with wrought iron railings. At the end of the room is the scene overlooked by a half-dome and skirted with a frieze of classified mosaics. Golden mirror slivers continue the pattern of the facets. The whole place is bathed in a subdued atmosphere, voluntarily dark (black shiny paint, flecked furniture, leather couches and wooden bar) brightened here and there by a touch of warmth and exotic plants. A stairway leads to the passageways and to the private salon, with mouldings on the ceiling and large open glass bays. It overlooks the main room, offering a priceless view on the heart of the Renard.