DRACH LAIR SPECTACULAR

In the 1890s, the French photographer Eugène Atget began documenting the architecture of old Paris. Traipsing the empty streets of the sixth arrondissement, he came to Guistel, a handsome hôtel particulier built less than a century before on the site of a Medieval convent. His sepia shot – at once eerie and enchanting – captures a pony and trap moving across the building’s classical façade. It’s here, behind the imposing porte cochère carved with ornamental shields, that Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, those Jazz Age emblems, would soon fleetingly call home.

Such cultural exuberance continues to imbue Guistel – albeit seen through another’s lens – in the flat of Julien Drach. Since taking up residence on the first floor, the photographer, film-maker and scenographer has transformed the 100 square-metre interior into a decadent creative refuge. ‘There was no renovation,’ says Drach, who has lived in the block for close to a decade, moving from a smaller space in 2021. ‘It was a clean and perfect white box. All I needed to do was to create a sense of place.’

See more: 
https://www.worldofinteriors.com/story/julien-drach-apartment-paris
By Aimee FarrellPhotography by Julien Drach