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Hôtel Scribe

1 rue Scribe · 75009 Paris

The Hôtel Scribe now operates as Sofitel Le Scribe Paris Opéra at 1 rue Scribe. The current hotel has 201 rooms, including 38 suites, with dining and wellness facilities.

Sofitel Le Scribe Paris Opéra is the hotel’s current trading name. Its older Hôtel Scribe history remains below.

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Explore the history of Hôtel Scribe
IllustrationPresent-day color view of the pale-stone Hôtel Scribe beneath a bright blue sky
The standing Haussmannian hotel in bright contemporary daylight, with its long iron balconies and mansard roof.Editorial illustration

The hotel today

Open for stays

A current hotel at a historic address.

Choose your room

Compare the options

Room layouts and rates vary by category and date.

Beyond the booking

The story of this address

Explore the people, history, and neighborhood.

Choose your room

A room for your stay in Paris

Compare the options, then check your dates with the hotel for availability, current rates, and the exact room configuration.

SuperiorQueen bed · courtyard

The hotel’s Superior category faces the courtyard.

Luxury and Luxury PremiumQueen or twin arrangements

Views and layouts differ between categories. Check the selected room’s description when booking.

Junior SuiteAdditional sitting space

The hotel lists king or queen configurations with a sofa, including a duplex option.

Prestige and larger suitesSeparate living space in selected categories

Prestige suites, terrace options, family suites, and an apartment offer other layouts. Confirm your group’s occupancy before reserving.

During your stay

Amenities and guest services

  • Restaurant Rivages
  • Scribe & Cie café
  • Room service
  • Hammam
  • Massage treatments

Dining and breakfast

The hotel offers breakfast, a café, and Restaurant Rivages. Check which meals are included in your rate.

Wellness

A hammam and massage treatments are listed. Ask about access and treatment reservations before arrival.

Stay at Sofitel Le Scribe Paris Opéra

Choose your dates to check room options and availability. Confirm breakfast, additional charges, and cancellation terms for the rate you choose.

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Sources for the hotel today

Operating status reviewed 2026-09-25. Room and service information comes from the sources below; confirm current arrangements with the hotel.

The history of this address

Hotel · Opéra (behind the Palais Garnier) · 9e arrondissement

The history of Hôtel Scribe

The buildingStill standing
Getting inIn, as a customer
What's there nowA successor, same room

Still a hotel at the same address, now the Sofitel Le Scribe Paris Opéra. Its café can be walked into without booking a room.

A grand hotel behind the Opéra, on the rue Scribe. In Down and Out in Paris and London it is the good job that keeps slipping away — where Boris earned a hundred francs a day in tips before he fell ill, and where he and George Orwell stood on the pavement for an hour hoping the manager would come out and hire them.

Address
1 rue Scribe, 75009 Paris
Years
In Orwell's Paris, 1929; he returned as a correspondent in 1945
IllustrationPresent-day color view of the pale-stone Hôtel Scribe beneath a bright blue sky

The standing Haussmannian hotel in bright contemporary daylight, with its long iron balconies and mansard roof.

Editorial illustration

The neighborhood

Opéra

Hôtel Scribe is in Opéra.

The place, briefly

The Hôtel Scribe stands on the corner of the rue Scribe, a street behind the Palais Garnier laid out as part of Haussmann's Opéra quarter. It was, and is, a large expensive hotel with a large expensive kitchen — which is exactly why it matters in Down and Out in Paris and London.

The book's economy runs on hotel kitchens. Boris, the Russian ex-officer George Orwell shares his hunger with, had climbed the trade: a brush factory, then portering at Les Halles, then dishwashing, then waiting tables. "When he fell ill he was at the Hôtel Scribe, and taking a hundred francs a day in tips." That is the peak he falls from, and the number the book measures every subsequent humiliation against.[1]

Later, at their lowest, the two of them come here to try to get it back. Orwell's account is four sentences of pure flatness: "We went to the Hôtel Scribe and waited an hour on the pavement, hoping that the manager would come out, but he never did. Then we dragged ourselves down to the rue du Commerce, only to find that the new restaurant, which was be—"

It is a small scene and one of the truest things in the book about looking for work with no money. There was no interview and no refusal. They simply stood outside a building for an hour, and nothing happened, and then they walked somewhere else.[2]

Orwell came back to the rue Scribe in better circumstances. He returned to Paris as a war correspondent in 1945, and stayed at the hotel — the same door, sixteen years and a reputation later.[3]

Key facts

Where
1 rue Scribe, behind the Palais Garnier, in the 9th
In the book
Boris's best job — a hundred francs a day in tips — and the door he and Orwell waited outside
The scene
An hour on the pavement hoping the manager would come out; he never did
Orwell's return
He stayed here as a war correspondent in 1945
Today
The Sofitel Le Scribe Paris Opéra; the café is enterable without a room

In images

The historic hotel entrance today at the corner of rue Scribe, still operating as Le Scribe Paris Opéra.Editorial illustration
The standing Haussmannian hotel in bright contemporary daylight, with its long iron balconies and mansard roof.Editorial illustration
Historically informed editorial reconstruction of the pavement scene Orwell describes in 1929.Artistic reconstruction
An ordinary working hotel morning in natural period color; the precise people and vehicles are interpretive, and the waiting men are not likenesses of Orwell or Boris.Artistic reconstruction
Rivages during lunch service, under the hotel's glass roof with its central gold-framed botanical installation.Editorial illustration
The street-level café and boutique during morning service on rue Scribe.Editorial illustration
The current Salon 1895, used as a function room while retaining its association with the Lumière brothers and early commercial cinema.Editorial illustration

Timeline

  1. 1929

    Boris is a waiter here on a hundred francs a day in tips before falling ill.

  2. 1929

    Orwell and Boris wait an hour on the pavement outside, hoping to be taken on.

  3. 1933

    Down and Out in Paris and London is published.

  4. 1945

    Orwell returns to Paris as a war correspondent and stays at the hotel.

On the map

Questions before you go

What is the Hôtel Scribe's connection to Orwell?

It appears twice in Down and Out in Paris and London. It is where his friend Boris had his best job, waiting tables for a hundred francs a day in tips before illness ended it, and it is where the two of them later stood on the pavement for an hour hoping the manager would come out and hire them. He never did. Orwell returned to the hotel as a war correspondent in 1945.

Can you visit the Hôtel Scribe?

Yes — it still operates at the same address as the Sofitel Le Scribe Paris Opéra. You do not need a room to get inside; its café is open to anyone, which makes it one of the easier Orwell locations to actually stand in.

Where is the Hôtel Scribe?

1 rue Scribe in the 9th arrondissement, immediately behind the Palais Garnier in the Opéra quarter. It is a short walk from the Grands Boulevards and from the American Express office on the rue Scribe that appears elsewhere in expatriate Paris writing.

Related books

Cover of Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

Setting of the story

Down and Out in Paris and London

George Orwell · 1933

Boris's best job before illness — waiting tables here for a hundred francs a day in tips — and the pavement the two of them wait on when they try to get it back.

Writers who knew this place

Illustrated portrait of George Orwell

George Orwell

British · English novelist, essayist and journalist, born Eric Arthur Blair, who wrote Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. He was an imperial policeman in Burma, a plongeur in Paris kitchens off the rue Mouffetard, and a militiaman shot through the neck in Spain before any of it.

Visited by · 1929

"We went to the Hôtel Scribe and waited an hour on the pavement, hoping that the manager would come out, but he never did." Orwell returned to the hotel as a war correspondent in 1945.

— George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)

Within walking distance

Colour photorealistic view of the former Nadar studio beneath a bright blue sky

Office · Opéra (2nd)

Nadar's studio, 35 boulevard des Capucines

The photographer Nadar's former studio, where thirty artists mounted the independent exhibition of April 1874 that got them the name Impressionists.

Visit the place
The Olympia façade and marquee in colour on boulevard des Capucines

Theatre · Opéra

L'Olympia

The boulevard music hall where Colette played the title role in La Romanichelle in 1906, during her run as a professional performer.

Visit the place
Present-day color view of the surviving honey-stone corner building at 11 rue Scribe under a blue sky, with the Nespresso boutique at street level

Office · Opéra

American Express Office at Opéra

The office by the Opéra where American expatriates collected their mail and cashed their cheques, and where David goes to escape Giovanni's room in Baldwin's novel.

Visit the place
Present-day color view of the Palais Garnier façade in bright daylight with visitors on the place de l'Opéra

Theatre · Opéra

Palais Garnier

The Paris opera house — Charles Garnier's Second Empire palace on the place de l'Opéra, inaugurated on 5 January 1875 and the home of the Paris Opera ever since.

Visit the place
References

References

The sources below include histories, archival materials, scholarly research, and official records that informed this page. They document Hôtel Scribe, the people connected to it, and its place in Paris.

  1. 1↑Down and Out in Paris and London

    Memoir
    Victor Gollancz, 1933
    Used for

    Boris's hundred francs a day, and the hour spent waiting on the pavement outside.

  2. 2↑Down and Out in Paris and London

    Website
    The Orwell Foundation
    Used for

    Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Hôtel Scribe page.

    View source

  1. 3↑George Orwell: A Life

    Biography
    Secker & Warburg, 1980
    Used for

    Biographical evidence used to verify chronology, relationships, and historical context connected to Hôtel Scribe.

    View source

  2. 4OpenStreetMap

    Map data
    Used for

    Map data used to verify addresses, geographic coordinates, and the placement associated with Hôtel Scribe.

    View source
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Why these sources are here

These references provide the documented foundation for this page's history and context. Claim-level citations remain attached to the specific claims they support.

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