Opening March 2026 - A Parisian Legend Born In 1965
Since it opened in 1965, the Bus Palladium has been the beating heart of the iconic Parisian neighbourhood Pigalle, night after night.
A cultural phenomenon, a temple of jerk, beatniks, electric nights, and wild concerts, the Bus has revealed championed artists, mixed generations, and abolished social boundaries: Renault workers and bourgeois, dandies, musicians, models, writers, night owls… all gathered on the same incandescent dance floor.
For Salvador Dalí (and his panther), who was fascinated by the place, Serge Gainsbourg in his song Qui est “In”, qui est “Out”, Mick Jagger, who celebrated his birthday there, the Beatles, who performed there, Otis Redding, Les Rita Mitsouko, and Téléphone, who recorded their first single there in front of a live audience, “Le Bus” was a theater of freedom.
Six decades of daring, lively concerts, and wild nights. Then, in 2022, came the announcement of its closure and a sense of loss: that of a unifying space where time seemed to stand still. Today, the Bus Palladium is preparing to reopen, after undergoing a facelift, ready to unleash once again the raw, joyful, and irreverent energy that has always defined it.
THE ENCOUNTER THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING:
CHRISTIAN CASMÈZE AND NICOLAS SALTIEL
Beautiful ideas often arise from an encounter. The rebirth of the Bus Palladium began around a game of backgammon.
Christian Casmèze, the historic owner, had been dreaming since 2016 of developing the building he inherited from his grandfather, purchased in 1924 at the Foire du Trône, without ever betraying its soul. He brought with him memories: anecdotes about James Arch, the spirit of the 1980s, and the unique atmosphere that was second to none.
Opposite him sat Nicolas Saltiel, founder of the hip hospitality group Chapitre Six (Hôtel La Ponche, Cap d’Antibes Beach Hotel, Hôtel Hana, Hôtel Monsieur George…), who had himself worked for Le Bus Palladium in his youth and knew its atmosphere, its backstage world, and its joyful freedom. He brings a vision: a place of creation, of encounters, “a theater stage where you never get bored.” From this friendship springs a shared ambition: to revive a legendary venue.
STUDIO KO: ARCHITECTURE AS NARRATIVE
To transform this unique location, Christian and Nicolas enlisted the help of Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty, founders of Studio KO, the Paris and Marrakech-based architecture firm. Their sensitive, sculptural, and instinctive approach amplified the initial vision: to create a dialogue between brutality and gentleness, memory and creation, rock and hedonism. With them, each volume becomes a chapter, and the entire project an architectural narrative that extends the soul of the original site while reinventing it.
In a historic neighborhood, an architectural project emerges that champions a new form of brutalism: inhabited, vibrant, and rich in color. Here, concrete dialogues with velvet, raw material against soft material, like two opposing voices that ultimately compose the same chord.
The building, born in a vacant lot, asserts itself in raw, massive, and sculptural concrete, but allows itself to be permeated by a resolutely rock ’n’ roll spirit of impertinence. Inside, modernity unfolds with unexpected elegance: a glamorous brutalism, where deep shadows and sensitive textures reinvent an imaginary world of celebration and music.
In the basement, the historic hall is reborn, like a living memory embedded in modernity. Here, brutalism no longer imposes itself: it confronts the cozy atmosphere of carpeted floors and walls that blur spatial references. It reveals tensions and allows a new harmony to emerge.
This building is not just a construction. It is an attitude. A radical stance. A manifesto that invents its own almost cinematic language, weaving its own unique, bold, and vibrant aesthetic, capable of transforming heritage into promise.
CAROLINE DE MAIGRET:
THE SENSORY AND MUSICAL SOUL
From artistic direction to project curation, Caroline de Maigret builds the sensory and emotional dimension of the new Bus Palladium. A music producer, Parisian icon, and figure of Pigalle since her twenties, she has created a veritable sensory grammar: playlists designed for every moment and every space, a signature amber-woody scent, and Husbands uniforms inspired by British rock and the French New Wave.
Her mission: to awaken the senses and preserve the generosity of the original Bus Palladium, while giving it a contemporary, elegant, and cultural twist.
LIONEL BENSEMOUN:
THE REBIRTH OF A VENUE
To reinvent the Bus’s nightlife, the project is being supported by Lionel Bensemoun, a major figure in Parisian nightlife (Le Baron, La Mano, etc.). His approach is clear: to restore the Bus Palladium to its role as a central venue, a platform where music, audiences, and styles come together.
Under his direction, the venue is reconnecting with its DNA: concerts, DJ sets, performances, shows, aftershows, and mixed nights, in a venue redesigned to accommodate 200 people, with the best sound in Paris, sculpted lighting, and a stage design capable of transforming the night into theater.
An open, generous, unifying place to discover and mingle, in the spirit of the Bus Palladium’s heyday.
VALENTIN RAFFALI:
A FREE AND PERSONAL APPROACH
Le Bus Palladium opens its doors to Valentin Raffali, appointed Executive Chef of the entire hotel. Here, he shapes the menus of the main restaurant, the bar and breakfast service, weaving a single, coherent voice through each moment of the day.
Recently settled in Paris, and already firmly surrounded, Valentin works with carefully chosen profiles brought together not for their similarity, but for their differences. A cuisine is never built alone. It grows through shared sensibilities, through attention and time.
Sourcing is essential to his approach. Not as a statement, but as a point of departure. Time spent upstream, selecting with attention, so that the plate can remain simple, readable and precise.
The restaurant offers a deliberately restrained menu: five starters, six mains, three desserts. Within this framework, the cooking speaks clearly. Scallops are paired with a pear pil-pil and a puntarelle salad brightened with cédrat. Tortellini are served simply, in brodo. Nothing seeks to impress, everything seeks to be right.
The sea is central to Val’s language. For this menu, he turns away from the Mediterranean he knows intimately, choosing instead to look towards the Atlantic a shift in geography that reflects a desire for renewal rather than rupture.
Desserts follow the same line of thought. Here, restraint becomes generosity. Ice cream, one of the chef’s enduring affections, is served without ornament: Isigny cream, white miso, balance and depth. A dessert that does not conclude, but lingers.
At the bar, the menu is conceived as an extension of the place itself. Seasonal, precise, free from the confines of “finger food”, it offers a cuisine meant to be shared, experienced.
Breakfast carries this same attention. Dry-aged Banka trout, Basque bacon from Noir de Bigorre pork, cured and smoked in-house. Familiar forms revisited quietly, such as Eggs Benedict, its sabayon lifted with Savagnin, a Jura yellow wine the chef returns to instinctively. In these discreet gestures, the first traces of his style appear.
“I wish to remain faithful to what I believe is my responsibility as a cook: to offer a just menu. My ambition is a quiet one, to take time, to stay focused, to enjoy the work, and to build this project with care.”
A HOTEL FOR NIGHT OWLS:
35 ROOMS AND A 70 M² ROCK SUITE
The floors house 35 rooms and suites, designed as contrasting cocoons where the materials tell a story:
• Proustian cork walls
• Raw concrete ceilings
• Powder pink carpeting
• Rows of blue mirrors
• Ojas speakers with built-in mood-based playlists…
On the first floor, the Rock Suite (70 m²) pays tribute to rock icons: an iconic balcony overlooking red neon lights and an artistic refuge atmosphere.
The hotel is designed as an all-day, all-night venue: a 24h/24, 365-day restaurant, a cocktail bar, where you can sit, chat, work, or simply watch the night unfold; and, on sunny days, an intimate rooftop, ideal for aperitifs perched above the Haussmannian zinc roofs.
A five-star hotel, yes, but one that bucks the trend, designed to be enjoyed at noon as well as at 4 a.m., so that guests can spend their entire stay there without ever feeling the urge to leave.
A VIBRANT CULTURAL HUB
IN THE HEART OF PIGALLE
Reopening the Bus Palladium isn’t about celebrating nostalgia: it’s about reigniting a scene. A lively place where you can sleep, dine, listen, dance, work, improvise, stay, create…
The Bus Palladium becomes:
• A stage–club where emerging artists and established talents cross paths,
• A hotel for creators, travelers, and dreamers,
• A vibrant restaurant, from early morning to the last drink,
• A high-energy bar driven by inventive mixology,
• An intimate rooftop,
• A living venue for exhibitions and artistic collaborations.
Paris rediscovers one of its centers of gravity.
A place of freedom where people pass through, stay, and return.
A place where you can sleep, or not.
This article was supplied by a third party and was not written by the Sticky Beak Blog.
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