The French designer Charlotte Biltgen’s furniture showroom is located on the ground floor of a typical Haussmannian building at the heart of Paris’s 17th arrondissement. Her home environment could hardly be more different. She wakes up many mornings to see grey herons perched outside her bedroom windows and spends most of her weekends waterskiing.
You could be forgiven for thinking that she lives in the countryside or by the sea. In fact, home is just a few hundred yards from Paris’s ring road and the nearest Metro station. She lives on a barge on the Seine, moored on the banks of the Île de Puteaux, an uninhabited island that is not only home to a natural bird reserve and listed rose garden but also numerous sporting facilities, including an Olympic-sized swimming pool, several football pitches and dozens of tennis courts.
The boat she shares with her husband, Cédric, and their three children — Salomé, Sacha and Juliette — is 42 yards long and named Txakoli after a white wine from the French Basque region, where Cédric spent many a childhood holiday. It was built in 1956 for industrial usage and acquired by him a few months before he met Charlotte in 2005. “I didn’t want a barge that had already been converted,” he says. “I wanted my very own project, where I could design everything.”
Back then, the vessel was extremely spartan. When Charlotte first saw it in a Burgundy boatyard it had no windows, electricity or water system. She was unfazed. “I love crazy, unusual projects,” she says. Plus, her parents had lived on a barge for 20 years before her birth. “I had fond memories of my father recounting their bohemian lifestyle on board,” she says.
To transplant it from the boatyard to its Paris mooring, Cédric had to negotiate 169 canal locks over the course of 14 days. The early years on board were basic. They installed a noisy electric generator in the hull and showered using water filtered directly from the Seine.
Today, Txakoli must have firm claims to be the most stylish boat on the river. The interiors are largely filled with Charlotte’s own creations, which are available via The Invisible Collection. In the living room, her curvaceous Ecume armchair sits near her Monceau side table, with its spiral-shaped plaster base, and her Moonlight floor lamp. “Its base is quite mechanical, with cog-like elements slotted together, whereas the shade is like a vaporous cloud,” she says.
In the main bedroom, the headboard has been upholstered in a graphic African fabric and a bright yellow armchair placed on its left side. “It’s my favorite color,” she says. “There’s something very uplifting about sleeping in its presence.”
In the dining area there is an intriguing artwork by the French-Swiss artist Martin Berger made from a distorted propylene panel. “I love its movement,” Charlotte says. “It’s like a pleated Issey Miyake textile or a wave.”
In general, she steered firmly away from other nautical references. “They’re fun if you’re on a boat for a week, but when you live on one all year round, it’s better to decorate it like an apartment,” she says. “Its distinctive forms and portholes are enough to remind you that you’re on the water.”
Both she and Cédric were also keen to maintain the maximum ceiling height possible. To that end, they used over 200,000 pounds of railway tracks as ballast in the hull; these take up just over six inches, compared with the usual one yard of concrete. As a result, the centre of the living room measures nearly ten feet from floor to ceiling. “It’s unheard of to have a barge with so much vertical height,” Cédric says.
They thought of other creature comforts too. A hammam was installed in the bedroom and a fireplace in the living room to provide cosiness in winter. During the summer months, they spend as much time as possible on the terrace, which was planted generously with greenery. “For me, that was particularly important,” Charlotte explains. “A barge is made from metal and the plants help to soften its potentially harsh, cold nature.”
The couple would not swap their lifestyle for anything else. When they decided to upgrade Txakoli a few years ago, they had to move into a rental apartment for nine months while it was being refitted. “Having to put up with the noise of the neighbors’ TV made the kids realize how lucky they are to live here,” Cédric says.
“I just love being on the water,” Charlotte adds. “It’s very calming visually, and being rocked so gently helps to soothe your mood.”
“Charlotte Biltgen: An American Debut” will be on view at the Invisible Collection New York, on the Upper East Side, from November 6, 2025, to December 31, 2025
Ian Phillips is a Paris-based journalist covering design
