Inside the Most Magical Suite on Rails: JR’s L’Observatoire on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express

All images courtesy of Ludovic Balay.

If a train could have a dream — lucid, luxurious, and laced with imagination — it would look a lot like L’Observatoire. Unveiled last year and officially opening for journeys since March 2025, this is the newest addition to the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, A Belmond Train — and the first-ever carriage conceived by an artist. It’s less a suite and more an unfolding storybook on rails. And the narrator? None other than JR, the enigmatic French artist known for pasting enormous portraits on rooftops and museums. This time, he’s turned inward, crafting an interior world that’s part atelier, part observatory, and entirely a work of art.

Where other luxury suites might aim for opulence, L’Observatoire reaches for the sublime. Its 31 square metres (yes, an entire carriage to yourself) is less about square footage and more about wonder-per-foot. The design draws from Renaissance cabinets of curiosity and astronomical observatories — places historically built to expand the mind. Here, however, the expansion happens as the Swiss Alps rush past the oculus skylight above your bed.

READ: Thinking About Booking a Private Jet? Here Are 5 Things to Know

That’s right. There’s an oculus. Two, actually. One in the bedroom and one tucked into the hidden Tea Room — both shaped like the aperture of a camera lens, nodding to JR’s preferred medium. They open at your command, revealing star-strewn skies or cloud-dappled sunlit ceilings, depending on which side of midnight you're travelling through.

The suite is an artwork in perpetual motion. In the bedroom, green leather scalloping climbs the walls like a lush canopy, converging above a free-standing bathtub that wouldn’t be out of place in a Venetian palazzo. Stained glass by Michael Mayer — more often found in cathedrals — frames the tub in rich hues, depicting fantastical trees whose trunks are ladders and leaves are, naturally, eyes. It’s JR’s surrealism at its most seductive.

The corridor — if you can call something so artfully assembled that — is clad in marquetry scallops and adorned with seven of JR’s travel photographs. It acts as a kind of wooden gallery walk between whimsical zones: the lounge (where yellow leather chairs circle a white-clothed table), the library (stocked with Gallimard, Penguin, and vinyl records), and the Tea Room (hidden, of course, behind a secret door).

And then there are the Easter eggs: a miniature model of the very carriage you’re in, tiny versions of JR’s monumental “Giants” peeking from the bookshelves, and artwork tucked in corners that reward the curious.

JR worked closely with master marquetry artisan Philippe Allemand to embed narrative into the walls themselves — quite literally. One scene shows the artist on a rooftop surveying a cityscape, a signature nod to his street-art roots. Another mosaic on the bathroom floor echoes his large-scale installations in places like the Palais Garnier and the Pyramids of Giza, proving that no surface is too humble for grandeur.

READ: Laidback Luxury Meets Beachside Bliss at Trisara Phuket - Hotel Review

And lest you worry that it’s all form and no function, L’Observatoire is thoroughly equipped for indulgence: 24-hour butler service, all meals (courtesy of Chef Jean Imbert), Champagne on tap, a record player for vinyl evenings, a daybed positioned precisely for landscape swooning, and private transfers within a 300km radius. It's not so much checking into a suite as stepping into a curated, travelling universe — JR’s mind made tactile.

“The carriages have travelled through countless decades and eras – so I wanted to find a new way to approach them, maintaining the connection to this deep story. Both my work and the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express are very artisanal, so L’Observatoire felt like a natural fit. Working with artisans, choosing woods and materials, and discovering motifs was not a constraint, because I am interested in making this a timeless artwork – as if I was an artist from the 1920s. I have added some features that are only possible in the 21st century but the fundamental craft is timeless," JR shared in an official press release.

Book now