Urban Exploration - The Oak Hotel
We received photos from a traveler and compiled them into a historical summary.
The Hôtel du Chêne (The Oak Hotel) is located near a tourist attraction. It’s a secondary department, a secondary tourist site, and yet, on this day of persistent rain, there’s a surprising number of people around. Visiting this hotel requires a fair amount of nerve: entering in plain sight, exploring the rooms while hearing people's conversations just outside, and knowing that the main room (the bar) is alarmed. A municipal notice, albeit an old one, makes this very clear.
I explore with a sense of serenity, knowing that my only goal is to highlight the heritage. As for the rest, I know the rules: respect and discretion.
The Hidden Art
The bedrooms are rather mundane, mostly because they are empty and bathed in a harsh, clinical light. It was a classic little hotel, and one could easily leave it at that, ticking it off a "to-do" list: just another one. However, there is one charming and completely extraordinary room: the dining hall.
At first, it looks like any common room in a small provincial hotel—a bit dated, a bit minimalist. You can easily imagine quiet breakfasts being served in that hushed atmosphere. But then, your eyes move to the walls. There are old advertisements used as decoration. Where it all shifts is that these are hand-painted oil paintings. They possess extraordinary charm, immense talent, and the care put into the decoration is superb.
Because they are positioned high up and, like all oil paintings, have a sheen, they are far from easy to capture on camera. Some are magnificent and look like professional reproductions from a shop. The largest one, at the back of the room, is suffering from dampness. I quickly move through the bar and reception area. I’m standing right in the path of the motion detector. It’s time to go.
A Rainy Departure
Outside, everything is calm. An astonishing number of tourists are strolling about in the persistent rain. The hotel likely closed in 2017 or 2018; it’s fairly recent. What will happen next? That remains a great mystery, but things certainly won't stay at a standstill for long.
