Photo by Guillaume Chamahian. Photo by Guillaume Chamahian. Photo by Guillaume Chamahian. Photo by Guillaume Chamahian. Photo by Guillaume Chamahian. Photo by Guillaume Chamahian.Photo by Guillaume Chamahian. In the Marseille district of Endoume, almost everyone knows La Relève, as did once their parents and their grandparents before them. Located on Rue d’Endoume, just around the corner from the Vieux-Port and Notre-Dame de la Garde, the bar-slash-B&B has been a much-loved local landmark since its inception as a bar de quartier in 1944. Owned by a local family, it was a regular watering hole for bus drivers, soldiers and the odd passerby. They’d pop in for an early morning coffee or jostle at the bar come sundown for an ale and an aperitif or two. The inn was handed down from generation to generation, in the last case from grandmother to granddaughter, until it was ultimately decided, in 2013, that there was no choice but to hand it over to someone else.Friends Greg Hessmann and Greg Mandonato were that someone(s) else. Vowing to bring the hotel back to its former glory and keep its historic magic alive, they dialled back time with little moments suggestive of its past life. The original zinc bar, for example, is as authentic as ever, as is the atmosphere, and the conversations that drift across the room.Hôtel des Académies et des Arts in Paris by Lizée-Hugot.In the time capsule that is Montparnasse, art can be seen everywhere. On buildings. Inside them. And in the case of this hotel, in its past, present and future... Photo by Guillaume Chamahian. Photo by Guillaume Chamahian. Photo by Guillaume Chamahian.Photo by Guillaume Chamahian. Responsibilities are evenly split between the Gregs: Hessmann, who has a background in business and event management, manages service, while Mandonato, who worked for many years at his family’s boulangerie-pâtisserie in Endoume, runs the kitchen. The partnership isn’t their first. Their first labour of love was a bar called Le Café de l’Abbaye, situated in the same town, above the luminous Vieux-Port. La Relève is their second.Given their backgrounds in hospitality, it was a given that the bar and restaurant would be the tour de force. And it is. The bistro has daily lunchtime specials, with fresh, delicately plated options (made with organic and local ingredients), and a tasteful wine list to boot. Dusk is best enjoyed with chilled beers and pastis and panisses, under the open sky.In 2023, La Relève got a little upgrade, with four additional rooms carved out on the first floor. The expansion was entrusted to Marseille-based architect Elsa Junod of Junod Marc Architects and designers Annick Lestrohan and Ingrid Giribone, the mother-daughter team behind interior design studio Honoré, who brought back the 1950s with furniture and decor sourced from Avignon, Montpelier, Saint-Rémy and Eygalières, and lots of local soul. They also added prints featuring Art Deco architecture, local landmarks, old hotels on the Côte d’Azur and the Amalfi Coast, and little reminders of summer.Palazzo Luce: A Dazzling Hotel-cum-Gallery in Lecce by Anna Maria Enselmi.This hotel-cum-gallery brims with art and design spotlighting artists from a spectrum of eras, with a specific focus on the modernist works of Gio Ponti... Photo by Nathalie Mohadjer. Photo by Nathalie Mohadjer. Photo by Nathalie Mohadjer. Photo by Olivier Amsellem.Photo by Olivier Amsellem. The spirit in these rooms is decidedly Mediterranean: sunny hues, sensual objects, rounded doorways, and terry-cloth bed linens, each embodying the coastline, now magically within reach. One room is blue, another pink, the third and fourth green and yellow. They each represent a unique theme—tropical, Rococo, Provençal and Mediterranean respectively—but share an abiding elegance. Italian-style showers and generous bathtubs, unique desks and headboards, Provençal tomettes (hexagonal clay tiles) and woodwork by Marseille artisan Romain Davidico are some hallmarks that repeat across rooms.La Relève is a peephole to the past, to a simpler, slower time when sitting down and sharing bread was something to be savoured, without having somewhere else to be. The atmosphere is as it once was, as is the food and company. For the Gregs, of course, it’s a dream fulfilled in full.Maison de la Luz in New Orleans by Studio Shamshiri & Atelier Ace.The extraordinary interiors draw on the history and multi-cultural nature of New Orleans, including French, African and Spanish elements... La Relève yellow hotel room La Relève green hotel room La Relève blue bathroom [Images courtesy of Junod Marc Architects and Honoré. Photography by Guillaume Chamahian, Nathalie Mohadjer & Olivier Amsellem.] Share the love:FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailPinterest Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Δ
