Tuba Club is the new elegant boutique hotel in Marseille

They enlisted their childhood friend, designer and architect Marion Mailaender, to lead the creative vision for the property. Given its history, they wanted to keep the classic spirit of French cottage, or fishing shed, which Mailaender used as a guiding force in its design plans. “The inspiration for Tuba was a mixture of vernacular architecture from the village of Les Goudes, a few nods to the old diving center and references to Le Corbusier’s Cabanon and to the Étoile de Mer Bar in Roquebrune Cap Martin », Explains Mailaender. The facade of the building has been redone with stone walls and lazured wood cladding, integrating the building into the rock and opening up to sea views.

Photo: Florian Touzet / Courtesy of the Tuba Club

At the entrance, Mailaender invited another friend and local artist, Emmanuelle Luciani from Southway Studio, to paint a large mural of bathers. The intimate and minimalist rooms are designed like wooden marine cabins with offset points of contact, like antique bird-shaped lamps by Fernand Léger and pipe coat racks by Elvire Bonduelle. Scuba diving books line the shelves, which are made of marine plywood. In the bathrooms, you shower with a garden hose while admiring the sea through the small yellow glass windows. Doodles by Southway Studio surprises and delights on a tiled floor in every bathroom. The cabins exude a nostalgic summer camp atmosphere, inspired by Mailaender’s childhood memories. Unlike a more chic hotel in Antibes, you won’t find fluffy bathrobes and slippers in the room; they are replaced by a set of fins, mask and snorkel, as a dip in the sea is the kind of indulgence that is most valuable here.

Photo: Florian Touzet / Courtesy of the Tuba Club
Photo: Florian Touzet / Courtesy of the Tuba Club

Just outside the rooms is the restaurant, where Gassa says he wants guests to feel at home (feel free to walk barefoot). The old tables of the diving school have been repainted, and the bar where Jacques Mayol drank with Albert Falco was simply covered with reed mats of local origin. They also kept a rubber tuba from the 70s, which they proudly display on the counter. “Everything is honest and spontaneous, because this it’s the shed, the seaside, the salty life ”, explains Denizot. The menu offers an epicurean mix of Mediterranean influences, promoting the best of the South. As for the bar, cocktails are to Tuba what diversity is to Marseille, explains the team. “They are a blend of spices, flavors and stories from all over the world.” The bartender recommends trying a Pana Mule with oceanic (eucalyptus) and Indian (rose, cardamom) aromas.

Photo: Florian Touzet / Courtesy of the Tuba Club

Everything at Tuba is designed to leave room for the most important aspects of the property: the raw scenery and the sea view. At the water’s edge you will find yellow striped lounge chairs perched on a craggy rocky “beach” . At the base of the rocks there is a steel ladder for easy access to the ocean, although you will see hedonists jumping straight off the rocks.

Photo: Florian Touzet / Courtesy of the Tuba Club

Despite the stylish crowds Tuba has drawn, the staff remain relaxed and approachable. “The idea is that people come as guests, but leave as friends,” says Gassa, a raison d’être you would be hard pressed to find in Cannes.

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