O
ther recent projects include his first
London hotel, L’oscar, a tribute to Oscar
Wilde; hotel Selman Marrakech; and
his reworking of Monte Carlo grand
dame the Hotel Metropole where,
according to Garcia, the “rocker and the duchess”
are thrown together. And then there’s the legendary
brasserie Le Fouquet’s — home of the César Awards
gala dinner — and Hotel Barrière Le Fouquet’s, on
the Champs-Elysées, neither of which required
much work as Garcia had ‘done’ them before.
“Interiors are similar to human beings,” he says.
“The better they are, the less we need to touch them.”
The ‘personal style’ of the Costes is a running
theme throughout Garcia’s oeuvre but two projects
seem especially close to the designer’s heart: Château
du Champ de Bataille, the grand 17th-century
country house he bought in a state of virtual ruin
in 1992, now so lovingly restored it gives Vaux-le-
Vicomte a run for its money; and his more recently
developed and self-named ‘resort’ in Noto, Sicily.
The château is Garcia’s masterpiece. Rarely, if ever,
is the restoration of so extensive a historic property
done with such passion and finesse, including his
complete rehabilitation of the garden, according
to original sketches attributed to King Louis XIV’s
landscape architect André Le Nôtre. There is,
of course, a twist: the garden hides an exquisite
Mogul Empire folly — an entire second, pavilion-
like palace made up of a multitude of architectural
components, some from 16th- and 17th-century
temples that Garcia salvaged in the years following
an earthquake in Rajasthan. Noto, on the other hand,
is lighter and quintessentially Mediterranean, albeit
ever so slightly more erudite — and always
romantic, à la Garcia. The great news is it’s available
to rent, and sure to elicit the same wonderment as
the Costes, all those years ago. VL
studiojacquesgarcia.com @jacquesgarciaofficielCLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Château
du Champ de Bataille in the upper
Normandy region of France. The
NoMad Hotel in downtown Los
Angeles. Selman Marrakech.74 voguelivin
PHOTOGRAPHER: BENOIT LINERO (NOMAD HOTEL)VLife