In the new Nhow Marseille, fun and the desire to discover meet high-quality art. The graffiti in the entrance and reception area was inspired by numerous artists from Marseille and the surrounding area. Three floors below, running down to the sea like terraces, the spectacular tunnel bar with black light arches (F. u.) meets the yellow Cactus Bar, both from the pen of the Italian designer Teresa Sapey. “The Cactus Bar looks like a huge submarine platform under the rock of Corniche. The washbasins are designed in the shape of Marseille soap, the floors reflect the colours of the sea,” she says.
Towards the meeting area you pass painted columns with dangling legs and diving fins. At the same time, the old, famous thermal spring splashes down a coastal rock face integrated into the house. With a new, glass platform, the architects have made the spring even more present in the house to amaze and murmur
The 150 rooms see themselves as an ode to the sea and the light – lots of white and yellow, canvas at the head of the bed, jellyfish-shaped lampshades, squeaky yellow sofas and all rooms with a view of the lake and some with balconies. “Hello Sylvie! Are you ready to dive into nhow?” Someone wrote on my mirror while I was diving and explaining the sound of the city on my chaise longues. Later someone shows me the Nhow Penthouse-Suite – on two floors and 130 square meters your feet go up here and the sea echoes at least as well. Above all, however, one can meet and celebrate here, including one’s own house bar. Beautiful too, but this time it’s the time for a lead leisure party.
Disobedient, proud Marseille
“We don’t want to be trendy,” stress the architects and designers. Rather, they are concerned with the special soul of Marseille, her disorder, her disobedience and pride. The dark and light side, so to speak. Finally open and an experience for everyone – both in Marseille and in the new Hotel Nhow. In this sense Nicolas recommends me to jump off the cliffs in the Calanques. The national park with up to 300 m high limestone cliffs reaches from Marseille to Cassis and starts approximately 5 km behind the hotel. An option for the next time, maybe.
For this time I get into the rubber dinghy and experience a city tour in the sunny southern French way. We rush past city bays, look at the skyscrapers of the business district La Joliette, at the docks of Marseille and around Château d’If, an old fortress island that above all Alexandre Dumas has set a monument to in his “Count of Monte Christo”.
Nicolas is right when he says that life and work here is full of tension and relaxation. Beyond the dark stereotypes and eternally celebrated Provence. Anyone who doesn’t want to use the cliché box should dare to go to Marseille!
Sylvie Konzack …
sat on her return flight next to a German manager who has been flying to Marseille almost every two weeks for years and works in the surrounding area. He has never been to Marseille himself, full of scepticism and a lack of interest. He may well have changed his mind in the meantime.
At a glance
Arrival: By car/taxi, Hotel Nhow Marseille is about 20 minutes from the train station and 35 minutes from Aéroport Marseille Provence.
Hotel: The Nhow Marseille is located on the south coast, between the Old Port and the Prado district, close to the Calanques National Park. The hotel entrance is located at the top of the street, from here the hotel is staggered four floors down to the sea. There are 150 rooms, the restaurant, the Sky Bar, the spa, two swimming pools and a direct access to the sea as well as 16 conference rooms (partly with sea view) and 1,800 square meters of event space. The hotel has its own thermal spring and rock face integrated into the hotel and its own jetty on the hotel shore.
Address: Hotel Nhow Marseille, 200 Corniche President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 13007 Marseille, +33 4 91 16 19 00
Fotos: Hotel Nhow Marseille, Konzack
