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This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to Paris
Paris does love a hero. Take the German-born industrialist Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf, who is honoured with both a street and a Métro station in the 11th arrondissement. The creator of toile de Jouy, one of the most entertaining and enduring printed fabrics in the world, became a French citizen in 1770. By 1806, he had been awarded the Légion d’Honneur — a spontaneous gesture by Napoleon during a tour of Oberkampf’s immense factory at Jouy-en-Josas, a leafy riverside town a few kilometres south-east of Versailles.
Now there’s a new tribute to this likeable and creative entrepreneur. Opened in June, following a complex five-year restoration, Dolce by Wyndham Versailles is a stately hotel at the heart of Domaine du Montcel — the 14-hectare walled estate on the eastern edge of Jouy-en-Josas where the Oberkampf family and then their descendants resided from 1795 to 1923.
After a long and convoluted RER journey on a hot summer’s day, my wife and I arrive at the grand entrance feeling flustered. Fortunately, a smartly uniformed concierge comes haring through the woods in a golf cart to spare us the long walk to a haughty neoclassical building, crowned by a monumental pediment.
Only the shell of Chez Oberkampf survives thanks to the German Luftwaffe, who occupied the château during the second world war, then set fire to it as they made a hasty departure in August 1944. The bucolic grounds, though, remain listed, having been created between 1806 and 1808 by Scottish landscape architect Thomas Blaikie. A winding river fringed with bulrushes is complemented by emerald lawns and mature trees, including a splendid 200-year-old cedar that can be admired from the expansive terrace of Le Cèdre restaurant.
All this would be enchanting enough, except that between 1980 and 1993, Domaine du Montcel was acquired first by the wealthy arts patron Jean Hamon, and then by the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art. The unmissable legacy from this creative period is a pair of monumental outdoor sculptures: “Long-Term Parking”, a colossal, 19m-high tower of 59 cars encased in concrete by French-American artist Arman; and the tangled and rusted, and equally imposing, “Hommage à Eiffel” by César, made by welding together redundant pieces of the Eiffel Tower. Both works are good enough reasons to pay a visit to Domaine du Montcel, even if only for a coffee.
But it’s much more fun to stay the night in the thoughtfully composed hotel rooms, elegantly styled by interior designer Sébastien Flamant. Pleasingly, this is no toile de Jouy-fest, although the fabric’s trademark Arcadian scenes — a lady on a swing, animals drinking at a fountain — do make restrained appearances on furnishings, corridor carpets, wallpaper and the pocket square tucked into the suit of the dapper general manager, Olivier Bigot. Only in the ballroom and meeting spaces, which are named after fabrics and manufacturers, do the designers let rip. We particularly admire the take on toile de Jouy in the Spa du Montcel Sothys, where one wall of the large indoor-outdoor pool is decorated with a tiled mosaic inspired by a pastoral scene from the Rossini opera La donna del lago.
To learn more about Oberkampf and his world, we rent a pair of the hotel’s e-bikes and head off on a freewheeling ride through the wooded hills that surround Jouy-en-Josas. It is Sunday morning and the pelotons of Lycra-clad cyclists are out in force. Dogs are being walked, church bells peal, the paddocks are full of expensive-looking horses.
Our first stop is a magnificent stone aqueduct in Buc, constructed from 1684 to 1686 by Louis XIV to supply water to the fountains and basins of his Versailles playground. Over 20m high, with 19 arches, it is a tremendous sight. When we spot a nearby cycle path winding off into the sun-dappled trees, we gaily follow it without having a clue or care where it will lead.
Our only mistake is that everywhere is looking decidedly fermé, and the prospects for lunch are not good. The Musée de la Toile de Jouy — located in the late-19th-century Château de l’Églantine, among glorious gardens, on the western outskirts of Jouy-en-Josas — sells only drinks. Somehow this doesn’t matter because the museum is totally engrossing.
Here we learn that Oberkampf built his manufactory beside the Bièvre river because the processing and dyeing of cotton required a plentiful supply of clean water (and cow dung). It was also close to a crucial customer base: the Palace of Versailles. In 1793, the four-storey workshop that ran for 110 metres was the largest industrial building in the world. More than 30,000 toile de Jouy designs were created before the premises closed in 1843. Only one of the buildings survives and today houses a music school.
Back at Dolce by Wyndham Versailles, chef Benoist Rambaud revives us with a fine dinner of filet de dorade and a glass of Chablis at Le Cèdre. We discuss the reasons for Oberkampf’s success, namely that he always used top-quality products and engaged talented workers such as the painter Jean-Baptiste Huet. The same principles are evident in the revival of his ancestral home, where contemporary French artists Louise Frydman and Michaël Cailloux have enlivened the public spaces. The latter’s whimsical wallpaper unites the Domaine’s themes: the cars, the birds, the cedar tree. While having your name on a grimy Métro station is undoubtedly an accolade, the revival of Domaine du Montcel is a significant step-up — and one that Oberkampf thoroughly deserves.
Nigel Tisdall was a guest of Dolce by Wyndham Versailles
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