FLIGHT OF FANCY

With its lofty perch amid rice paddies and mountains, architect Bill Bensley envisions a fusion for Hotel de la Coupole, member of the MGallery Hotel Collection, where French haute couture meets hill tribe culture

- THUY DUONG NGUYEN and LINDA BERGMARK

When Bill Bensley and his teams were asked to design the Hotel de La Coupole, it was a mix of French colonial culture, rice terraced mountains and local ethnic minorities that served as his inspiration. The catalyst for the entire hotel, he says, was a sight at a “marché aux puces” or flea market in Paris: A 1920s vintage polka dot hat, placed atop a typical Vietnamese hill tribe hat. “What a great thing to do,” he mused, “to make an entire hotel from this idea— Vietnamese hill tribe with a French influence at the turn of the century.”