The Sybaritic Single was never too fond of haunted mansions and even less so, haunted luxury hotels. With Le Richmond Geneva, his usual place-to-be in the capital of boredom, tightly closed, he had to seek an alternative place to stay, which brought him to Hotel d’Angleterre just around the corner, a favourite of Mikhail Gorbachev and Michael Jackson. He checked-in.
Inaugurated in 1872, it’s a unicorn on the shores of Lac Leman with a leopard in the basement, guarded by two sphinxes at the entrance. The 45-rooms hotel looks out of a different era and feels terribly antique. The parquet floor in the ballroom is original – it is this same floor that Louise, Archduchess of Austria and Crown Princess of Saxony, wife of Prince Frederick Augustus, danced on. The squeaky floor in the Sybaritic Single’s room upstairs had a similar vibe – it made all sorts of noises, literally protesting every time the guest walked over it for another splash of a Dior perfume or a glass of Ruinart.
Evenings felt like a jungle in The Leopard Room, one of Geneva’s most flamboyant basement drinking dens, with leopardskin not only on the floor and upholstery but also on the ceiling. The visual cacophony. Yet the Sybaritic Single fell in love with vintage Louis Vuitton trunks used as tables, filled with stories of their owners long gone. The main adventure, however, was to ascend from the basement back to the rooftop room by the means of a tiny tired elevator with unseen-today folding doors, which probably served the same XIX century royalty.
At nights, the dimly lit narrow corridors and corners came to life. The hotel felt haunted, breathing deeply with memories of the days long gone. Every time the Sybaritic Single requested something, his liveried butler materialized as if from thin air within moments with the order on a silver tray – just to vanish with a mysterious smile in the darkness just as promptly. There were unexplained occasional electrical disturbances when the Sybaritic Single used his hairdryer. Some items kept moving around the room (housekeeping?), while other just disappeared forever. Was the old building taking its toll for being disturbed by the flamboyant resident?
