After recently coming under the ownership of Bessé Signature  (a young, dynamic and enthusiastic family-owned hotel group based in France), Hôtel Vernet was given a complete make-over by renowned interior designer  François Champsaur, a Marsellais who founded his studio in 1996 and has completed several luxury hotel renovations in France and abroad. Champsaur has also built a reputation as an interior designer especially for art collectors’ houses, and his work for Hôtel Vernet reflects that experience: the interiors of the hotel are almost akin to an actual collector’s home, as contemporary art and design take centre-stage. A carefully curated selection of artworks, furniture, textures and materials are combined in balanced spatial compositions, creating stunning vignettes in every area of the hotel, including the rooms upstairs.

Eager to showcase French artistry and craftsmanship throughout, François Champsaur commissioned French visual artist Jean-Michel Alberola to paint a fresco on the bar’s ceiling; interestingly, the same artist has designed the bar’s carpet, where the art above seems to ‘reflect’ the design below. Other ‘artistic’ touches include the Carrara-marble ‘Deconstructed Bar’ (the curvy bar counter designed by Champsaur, which is placed in front of a stunning folded copper screen made by Pouenat), as well as the way the room numbers resemble artworks in the corridors, placed on individual pedestals, lit from above. However, Champsaur’s vision for bringing together art and design is nowhere more visible than the hotel’s restaurant, where a minimalist assortment of dining furniture and contemporary art sits beneath a monumental stained glass dome designed by none other than Gustave Eiffel, the mastermind behind Paris’ iconic tower. If not for the hotel’s new bright interiors and luxurious amenities, it may well be worth visiting Hôtel Vernet merely for the pleasure of enjoying some fine French cuisine under the breathtaking dome!