A night at Maison Colbert: How the Paris residence of Simone de Beauvoir became a luxury hotel

"A soft scent of cherry blossom envelops Maison Colbert. Between that floral sweetness and the garden that surrounds its front entrance, which is flanked by tables perfect for afternoon tea, the 17th-century residence seems to live in a perpetual spring. That's even the case when there is a torrential rain outside that soaks the golden plaque that commemorates its most illustrious guest, Simone de Beauvoir."

"Those partitions are now painted in pastel tones and turquoise, and enclose the modern furniture and mid-century notes of the hotel's rooms. It was here, on the top floor of the building, now home to the hotel's most grand suite, where the famed writer conceived of the work that would become the culminating point of contemporary feminism, and generated as much upheaval and controversy as it did sales, with conceptual sentences like: One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman."

"The era's existentialism, the maturity of a life entering its forties, and the feminist activism running through her veins fueled the text of nearly one thousand pages, which bore the mark of the Gallimard publishing house on its first edition. The Second Sex was also a hopeful reflection of a France that had been liberated after World War II, and which de Beauvoir observed from her apartment at 7 Rue de l'Hotel Colbert in the fifth arrondissement, in the heart of the Latin Quarter."

A soft scent of cherry blossom and a garden with front-entrance tables create a perpetual spring atmosphere at Maison Colbert. Torrential rain can soak the golden plaque that commemorates Simone de Beauvoir. More than seven decades have passed since the Parisian writer and philosopher lived in the Neoclassical house now converted into luxury accommodation by the Melia Collection. The top floor houses the hotel's grand suite where de Beauvoir conceived The Second Sex, a nearly thousand-page work shaped by existentialism, maturity, and feminist activism and first published by Gallimard. The apartment faced the Quai de Montebello with views toward Notre Dame.

Read at english.elpais.com