The Amazing Macaron-themed Hotel Room: A Review Of Vice Versa, the Most Unique Boutique Hotel in Paris, France

I’m just going to say it outright: Vice Versa may just be one of the best hotels in Paris, France.

It’s one of the most unique places to stay in Paris, and for good reason. The entire hotel — all 37 rooms! — are decorated in a very unique theme.

I had the chance to stay at Vice Versa during my trip to Paris and specifically booked this gorgeous macaron-themed room because it had the most unique design. Hello, a giant macaron-shaped bed? I’ll take three, wrapped up in a box with a bowtie. ;)

Besides my room, this French boutique hotel has an amazing design, friendly service, and stays very on-theme — unlike some hotels, which only have a few themed rooms, this one is themed from the basement to the attic!

Ready to check it out? Grab your beret and let’s go!

Warning: this post contains a lot of cliche French words (see what I did there?) and candy puns. I warned you, mon amie.

Likewise, this post was not sponsored in any way – I paid for the room with my own money and all opinions are my own. I just really loved the hotel theme and wanted to show everyone how cool this hotel is.
However, if you book the hotel through my affiliate links, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support! :)

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THE HOTEL’S HISTORY

Before we dive into the good stuff, let’s start by talking a little about the hotel’s interesting history. Opened in 2012, Vice Versa’s interior design is the brainchild of French icon and lingerie designer Chantal Thomass, who actually started with only two rooms before being given the entire hotel!

In an interview, Chantal recalls the moment: “…When Pierre Martin-Roux of the Compagnie Hôtelière de Bagatelle offered me a whole hotel, I jumped on the opportunity.”

There are 37 total rooms in the hotel, each decorated in one of seven themes. So what are the themes? You might ask…

The seven deadly sins! Chantal notes, “The theme was immediately clear to me: seven floors, seven deadly sins.”

As you might have guessed, the room I stayed in was called Gluttony, which means over-indulging and over-consuming food, drink, or wealth items… which just about sums up my time in Paris and how many croissants/baguettes/macarons/crepes I ate.

Although I’d love to show off each of the seven room themes right now, we’ll get to that a little bit later because I’m excited to show off my macaron-themed room! Let’s get to it. :)

PRICE

I stayed at the Vice Versa in May 2018 and paid 105 EUR for a one night stay, plus an extra 10 EUR to choose the exact ~~sin I wanted to commit~~ room I wanted to stay in.

Note that if you want to guarantee which type of room you want to stay in (i.e. you only want the Pride room), the hotel offers a Guarantee Your Sin program. For a small extra fee, you can choose from one of the seven sins and you’ll be guaranteed that room upon arrival. Most rooms are an extra 10 EUR, with the exception of Greed (-2 EUR from your check) and Lust (+50 EUR extra). You can tell Vice Versa really sticks to the theme when you get a discount of 2 EUR if you pick the Greed room, huh? ;)

If you don’t pay extra, you’ll be randomly assigned to a room type. Of course you can try your luck, but I really wanted to stay in the Gluttony (or “macaron room,” as I affectionately call it) and didn’t mind forking over an extra 10 EUR. To do this, I simply booked a room through Booking, called the front desk, paid over the phone, and voila! My macaron was guaranteed.

Check current prices and book your room here

LOCATION

Vice Versa is located in the 15th arrondissement and north of the Saint-Lambert neighborhood. This is the southwest part of Paris, France.

Although we were here for only one night, we walked a lot around our new “neighborhood” and found the 15th arroindement to be very safe and residential. It’s a very beautiful area with plenty of parks, stores, and everything you need close by.

In terms of public transportation, the Vice Versa hotel is a quick 8-minute walk to the Convention metro station. This station services Paris metro line 12 (the green line), which means you can directly go to a ton of amazing places in the city, including the Place de la Concorde (Concorde station), the Luxembourg Gardens (Notre-Dame-des-Champs station), and my personal favorite, the beautiful neighborhood of Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur church (Lamarck – Caulaincourt station).

There’s also the Lourmel metro station that’s only a 10-minute walk from the hotel, that directly goes to the Champ de Mars (the park in front of the Eiffel Tower) and to the Pont Alexandre III bridge (which has lovely views of the Seine and the city).

Since the hotel is near the Saint-Lambert neighborhood, it’s one of the best hotels in Paris if you plan to attend a concert or sport event because it’s a 5-minute walk to The Dome of Paris (Le Dôme de Paris, where The Beatles played!) and a 12-minute walk to the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles exhibition center.

Otherwise, there are plenty of cafes, restaurants, shops, and grocery stores in the area, making the location extremely convenient and an excellent base for a trip to Paris. C’est fantastique. :)

CHECK-IN

The first thing that you’ll notice as you step inside the hotel is how white the lobby is: the snowy-white wallpaper, the chic white unicorn statue, the white furniture…

If you think it’s a play on the hotel’s theme, you’re absolutely right! Vice Versa’s entire lobby is heaven-themed — there are fluffy white angel wings hanging from the wall, after all.

If you go downstairs, you’ll be met with a striking black-and-red tiled hammam, which, you guessed it, is hell-themed.

Get it? The hammam is downstairs, red, and has very hot temperatures? Because it’s hell-themed? *ba dum tss* Okay I’ll stop now

The check-in was extremely smooth and took less than 5 minutes. The front desk manager was very friendly, telling us a bit about the hotel’s history all while making a copy of our passports and issuing our key. Efficient and hospitable! *chef’s kiss*

ATMOSPHERE

Since this was my first trip to Paris, I read horror stories of French stereotypes and that there was a general feeling of snobbish and stuck-upness. Thankfully, that was far from the truth!

The atmosphere at Vice Versa was pleasant and inviting, and each employee we interacted with was very sweet and friendly. Although this is a more mid-range hotel, it didn’t have the typical “attitude” that you might expect with the price tag.

Overall, the hotel was very welcoming and approachable.

THE ROOM

The moment you’ve all been waiting for: the actual room tour!

*Drum roll*

Isn’t it gorgeous? 😍

The room is so well-decorated and looks exactly the same as it does in photos. Actually, scratch that — it looks even better because you’re actually there in person!

When you walk into the room, the bathroom is straight ahead and the actual suite is to your right.

THE SUITE

One of the first things that you’ll notice as you walk into the room is, well, the giant macaron-shaped bed in the center. To really add to the theme, there are also three mini-macaron pillows that adorn the bed — which, by the way, make excellent props when you’re trying to take photos of your Laduree haul. :)

Although it’s hard to choose, the bed was probably my favorite part of this entire room. It’s so soft and comfortable, the pillows are the right firmness, and there are multiple electric sockets right next to the bed (perfect for those of us who have short phone chargers).

Let’s take a closer look at all of the little details in the room…

There’s a large illustration of Marie Antoinette on the wall, AKA our favorite glutton who’s known for the famous phrase “Let them eat cake.” If you look closely, you can see she has a whisk in her hand and her dress is made out of various sweets… Which is something I just noticed while writing this post, 2 years after I checked out of this hotel.

And, after waking up from a few sweet dreams, the first thing that’ll catch your eye is the giant text right above the bed: attention péché mignon (attention, cute sin).

Like I mentioned before, Vice Versa really pays attention to the finer details, which make the rooms that much more authentic and themed. Here are a few of my favorite details in the room:

These sweet teacup and teapot-shaped lamps, which really fit well with the next item…

… AKA this colorful wallpaper, which is full of porcelain plates! What’s a delicious cup of tea without a pastry gently placed atop a dainty porcelain plate? ;)

While we’re on the theme of pastries and sweets, there’s this unique cupcake-shaped chair…

Heck, even the lamp switches had illustrations of pastries!

The room has everything you need for a comfortable stay, including a desk and chair, mini-bar stocked with drinks and snacks, a small closet with hangers (that also lights up when you open it!), and a safe. One of my favorite amenities at Vice Versa was the complimentary phone that you can take with you when exploring Paris because it has internet and dozens of useful apps (i.e. translation, currency exchange, maps, etc).

THE BATHROOM

Although it looks compact, the bathroom was actually very spacious and had a place for everything. There’s a shelf right above the toilet to place larger items (like my makeup and toiletries bag), and a sink to place smaller items (face wash, contact lenses, etc).

Also, can we stop for a second and talk about how cute the whole sink area looks? From the cupcake-shaped mirror to the elegant vintage sink, you can tell that Chantal really took this whole interior decoration job seriously.

Speaking of Chantal… The door to the bathroom has a quote from Ms. Thomass herself, which reads: “Un péché sucré n’est pas vraiment un péché” (A sweet sin is not really a sin). Such a sweet quote, non?

The shower area has both a shower-head and a shower faucet, along with plenty of on-brand amenities — there were tubes of shower gel, shampoo, and conditioner.

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The fine details: We stayed in Room 701, which is the Gluttony Room, located on the first floor.

Although it was on the first floor and right across the lobby waiting room, our room was totally quiet and we didn’t hear any noise come through. Best of all, we were close to the dining room and didn’t need to lug our luggage up a ton of stairs ;)

THE REST OF THE HOTEL

THE OTHER ~~ROOMS~~ SINS

Now that we had a lovely room tour of Gluttony, it would be a shame not to show the other rooms in this unique hotel, wouldn’t it? Like I promised, here are the other six sins :)

Greed — Who doesn’t love money, honey? This room is dedicated to the posh life, with Russian roubles, Nigerian shillings, US dollars, Swiss francs, and other vintage banknotes everywhere… Can you count how many different banknotes there are scattered across the room? Take a look at the night tables, which have handles in the shape of bank vaults.

Pride — You, you, you… It’s all about you in this room! Pride is all about touches of gold and royal blue, from the gold-tiled bathroom to the fancy chandelier, Greco-Roman columns, and bathroom mirror that will literally make you feel like royalty. Don’t forget to take pride in yourself for choosing such an excellent room. *pats on back*

Envy — Besides Gluttony, this is one of my favorite rooms because it’s such an interesting interpretation of the sin. When you walk in, you’re instantly transported to a luxury boutique in Paris: from the diamond ring chair to the expensive shoes and bags adorning the wall, to the pearl necklace around your feet… Your friends will definitely be envious of your trip to Paris after you come back from this boutique hotel.

Sloth — *Yawn* Who needs a packed itinerary when you can just chill out in your room? Transport yourself to an idyllic field in this room, featuring a blue “sky” for the ceiling, a flower-and-grass carpet, and touches of butterflies everywhere. Perfect for those lazy days when all you want to do is stay in bed and watch Netflix.

Wrath — Sometimes, you just gotta let out your anger… This room mixes chic touches (like the graffitied portrait of a French queen) with moody black and red details. Don’t forget to check out the skull mosaic tile in the bathroom and the unique wallpaper!

Lust — You’ll definitely lust after this room once you see it! The Lust suite is perfect for romantic getaways (this is Paris, after all), with its black and pink decor, a heart-shaped mirror on the ceiling, delicate lace patterns, and a spacious tub in the bathroom.

OTHER AMENITIES

BREAKFAST & COCKTAILS

Vice Versa offers a continental breakfast from 7 AM to 10:30 AM every day (for an extra charge). Start your day in the breakfast lounge — decorated like a retro French cafe— and enjoy slices of meats, cheeses, fruits, yogurts, cereal, juices, hot drinks, and more.

There’s also a cocktail bar / honesty bar, where you can create your own cocktail and pay whatever you think is fair. Bonus: Happy Hour is from 6PM to 8PM every day ;)

HAMMAM

Remember the hammam downstairs? It’s open from 9AM to 10PM every day — just make sure to reserve your spot ahead of time.

OTHER SERVICES

Vice Versa offers a ton of other services, such as airport transfers, setting you up with a personal shopper, concierge assistance, room service, babysitting, and more.