A hotel facing the Panthéon, in the heart of the Latin Quarter
The Hôtel des Grands Hommes takes its name from the monument across the square: the Panthéon, whose pediment bears the famous inscription “Aux grands hommes, la patrie reconnaissante” (“To great men, the grateful nation”). Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola and Marie Curie rest beneath its dome, designed by the architect Soufflot. Set in an 18th-century building, the hotel occupies one of the most iconic locations in Paris’s 5th arrondissement.
1919: André Breton and the birth of automatic writing
André Breton stayed in one of the hotel’s rooms in 1918–1919. Here, with Philippe Soupault, he wrote Les Champs magnétiques (The Magnetic Fields), the first work of automatic writing. This literary experiment laid the foundations of the Surrealist movement, which would leave a lasting mark on 20th-century art and literature. Staying at the Hôtel des Grands Hommes means sleeping in one of the birthplaces of the Parisian avant-garde.
A preserved heritage
Today, the hotel carries on this literary and historic spirit. Its vaulted room in dressed stone recalls the age of the building.
Historic Paris on your doorstep
The Luxembourg Gardens, the Sorbonne, rue Mouffetard and the banks of the Seine are just a few minutes’ walk away. The Hôtel des Grands Hommes is the perfect starting point for discovering the Paris of writers, students and artists.