Introducing Villa Junot: A Private Parisian Getaway in Montmartre

A number of years ago, I flipped from being someone who never celebrated my birthday to deciding that I always would. I cannot remember exactly what prompted the change—perhaps age, perhaps gratitude, perhaps the realization that the rituals we resist are often the ones we need most—but I do know that my daughter’s birthday falling the day after mine helped. We made a pact that whenever possible, we would celebrate together, creating not only an annual tradition but an extra excuse to carve out time for each other.

Paris, being my favorite city for celebrations—and most everything else—naturally became our default location. Over the years, we have marked our birthdays there in favorite hotels, returning to rooms, restaurants and routines that felt increasingly familiar. But this year, we decided to put a different spin on our celebration. Instead of checking into a beloved hotel, I arranged for us to try a new kind of Parisian stay: a five-bedroom villa in the heart of Montmartre. It would give us a reason to explore a neighborhood in our favorite city that we did not know well, while also allowing us to invite a few friends for a girls’ sleepover weekend.

Villa Junot is part of Iconic House, a new hospitality concept launched by two French brothers, Robin Michel and Thibaud Elzière, who found that neither hotels nor villas quite provided what they were looking for on vacation. Hotels, they felt, did not offer enough privacy or intimacy for a group gathering; villas, meanwhile, too rarely delivered the kind of world-class design, seamless service and polished hospitality that today’s five-star traveler expects. So they decided to create a new category: spectacular private homes in sought-after destinations, restored by leading designers and operated with the care and professionalism of a luxury hotel.

Their properties, which they call Maisons Hôtelières, or private houses dedicated to hospitality, are meant to combine the best of both worlds: the privacy, freedom and shared spaces of a house with the design, staffing and service standards of a top hotel. They began acquiring exceptional properties in destinations such as the South of France and the Alps, then bringing in renowned interior designers and carefully trained teams to make each stay feel personal, pampering and effortless.

For their Paris foray, they acquired a truly iconic townhouse. The six-story, Art Nouveau Villa Junot sits on a picturesque street in Montmartre and once belonged to the French operetta composer André Mauprey. Robin and Thibaud hired the AD100 interior design team Claves Architecture to draw on both the house’s storied past and the neighborhood’s long association with artists, writers and Surrealists. The result is a house that feels layered rather than decorated—stylish, comfortable and contemporary, but still full of wit, history and Parisian atmosphere.

There are nuanced nods to Mauprey and to Montmartre throughout. Custom carpets incorporate musical notes from one of the composer’s beloved works, while new stained-glass details by former Hermès creative director Sophie Toporkoff add color and craft. The artwork and books scattered through the house evoke the spirits of Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, André Breton and the many other creative figures who once made this hilltop neighborhood feel like the center of the avant-garde world.

At the same time, Villa Junot has every modern indulgence one could want, which made it hard for us to tear ourselves away for city outings. There is a subterranean spa area with a sauna, steam room and Jacuzzi pool; a plush cinema room complete with a popcorn maker; elegant sitting rooms made for lingering; and a rooftop terrace where we invited friends to join us for Champagne cocktails at sunset. From there, Paris felt at once close and slightly removed—the Sacré-Coeur nearby, the rooftops stretching out below us, the city familiar but reframed.

One of my sisters flew over to join the weekend celebration, as did two close friends, which meant that all five of us had our own bedrooms but could still gather for breakfast in pajamas, curl up for late-night conversations and move through the house as if it were temporarily ours. That, of course, is the beauty of a private house: everyone can retreat, but no one has to disappear. The shared spaces become the heart of the experience.

Before we arrived, the house staff worked with me to arrange a chef at home for dinner on our first night and to create a plan for discovering Montmartre. Although all of us know Paris well, none of us had spent much time in the hilltop neighborhood surrounding the famous Sacré-Coeur Basilica. Montmartre has a dual identity: parts of it are undeniably crowded with visitors, yet just a few streets away from the bustle are quiet lanes, staircases, small boutiques, art galleries, cafés and residential corners that still feel almost village-like.

We explored local pastry shops and small boutiques and did a walking tour with an excellent guide, who shared stories about the controversial construction of Sacré-Coeur and pointed out neighborhood landmarks, including the former home of Renoir and the 17th-century Moulin de la Galette, now a beloved restaurant. It was a reminder that even in a city one thinks one knows, there are always new layers to uncover. Paris rewards loyalty, but it also rewards curiosity.

One day, we had a fun lunch across the street from the villa at Hôtel Particulier Montmartre, a garden oasis tucked behind iron gates, complete with a boules court and a slightly louche, hidden-away charm. Thanks to its role as a neighborhood watering hole and its funky, faded basement bar, the property has been called Paris’ Château Marmont. We might never have found it without the recommendation of the villa’s house manager, and that was part of the pleasure: the feeling that we were being gently ushered into a more local, more private Paris.

The house manager also arranged the chef who prepared dinner for us one evening. He served a delicious miso eggplant with tahini and parsley as a starter, followed by chicken ballotine with morel sauce and mashed potatoes. Dessert—an apple tart with salted butter caramel and vanilla Chantilly—sealed our feeling that although we had the privacy and ease of our own dining room, we could just as easily have been in a very good restaurant. The difference was that no one had to think about coats, taxis, reservations or who was sitting at the next table. We simply stayed in, dressed up just enough and enjoyed being together.

In fact, the dinner became a fitting metaphor for the weekend. Even the best hotels require a series of interactions with strangers, whether they are other guests in the lobby, well-meaning staff in the hallways or fellow diners in a restaurant. Each nod, greeting or polite exchange is small, but together they puncture the spell of privacy one can have with family and friends inside a house. When time together is limited, every minute matters. The intimacy of staying under one roof, with staff present only when needed, seemed to heighten the pleasure of our shared time.

Villa Junot gave us the ample space and serious privacy to enjoy one another in a way that would have been impossible in a hotel, yet we sacrificed nothing. We could drink coffee in bathrobes, watch a movie in pajamas, linger over breakfast, separate for a nap or a spa session, then reconvene on the terrace for Champagne. At the same time, there was someone to make cappuccinos and eggs, arrange a guide, book a table, call a car or make the house feel quietly cared for.

For two nights of a girls’ power catch-up, I cannot imagine a better setup. We had the fun of discovery, the comfort of being in our own little world and the thrill of still being in Paris, with our favorite shops and restaurants just an Uber away. It was not a replacement for the grand Paris hotel experience, which I will always love, but it was something different and, for this occasion, perhaps even better.

The weekend reminded me why I changed my mind about birthdays in the first place. Celebrating is not really about the number, or even the destination. It is about creating a container for time together—a reason to gather, to pause, to be silly, to dress up, to stay in, to remember who we are to one another outside the rush of ordinary life. Paris has always been good for that. But this year, behind the doors of a Montmartre townhouse, with the city just beyond the windows and the people I love under one roof, it felt especially easy to be grateful for another year.

Iconic House was founded in 2021 by brothers Thibaud Elzière and Robin Michel. Below, Robin takes Indagare readers behind the scenes of the collection.

What is an Iconic House?

RM: We call them Maisons Hôtelières. They are our own houses, which we choose, design, renovate and operate ourselves as a hospitality brand. The idea is simple: the service, comfort and amenities of a great hotel, with the intimacy, freedom and character of a private home entirely to yourself. We are not renting villas and adding services around them. We are creating houses from the beginning, around the way people will live in them, and around the hospitality we want to offer: no shared spaces, no other guests, no fixed rhythm. Breakfast can be at noon, the children can take over the house, friends can come for dinner and everyone can stay around the table far too late.

I think this is where luxury is moving—it's less about impressing people and more about making them feel something. More intimacy, more freedom and, ultimately, more time really spent together.

Where are your houses located?

RM: Today all our houses are in France: Les Baux-de-Provence, Gordes, Cap Ferret, Hossegor, Megève, Courchevel and Paris—with more to come in France and in Europe. We keep the collection deliberately small and choose every house one by one. Each should have its own architecture, personality and sense of place, but the level of hospitality should always feel unmistakably Iconic House.

What services are included?

RM: Each house has a dedicated manager, daily housekeeping, a resident chef and a team entirely focused on the guests, with butler and driver services depending on the house. Food, wellness and childcare are all a big part of the experience too. We also created Compositions, our way of going beyond the traditional concierge. We can help organize experiences for every interest—or simply share the places we love—not to fill every hour, but to make the time together as good as it can be.

Who are your houses right for?

RM: Above all, families and groups of friends who want to really spend time together. After hundreds of stays, what we see is that people behave differently in a house. Meals last longer, children make the place their own, people meet in the kitchen, stay around the table and open another bottle. These sound like small things, but they are often the strongest memories of a trip. Our guests obviously care about privacy, design and exceptional service, but I think what they are really looking for is time and freedom together.

What is the price range?

RM: Depending on the house and season, stays range from around 14,000 to 55,000 euros per week, and approximately 40,000 to 170,000 euros for our Alpine houses in the winter. Paris is generally 10,000 euros per night. Most houses have seven or eight bedrooms, so that is roughly 250 to 1,100 euros per bedroom per night, or 700 to 3,500 euros in the Alps in the winter. Compared with booking seven or eight rooms or suites in a great five-star hotel, our pricing can actually be very competitive, and sometimes less expensive—and here you have the entire house, all the living spaces, complete privacy and your own team.