Renowned architect and designer Philippe Starck has collaborated with real estate group Pichet and lifestyle hospitality company Ennismore on Mondrian Bordeaux Les Carmes, a new inspired destination in the heart of Bordeaux’s historic Chartrons district.
Mondrian Bordeaux Les Carmes offers an authentic and refined five-star hotel with 97 rooms and suites, an elegant Japanese-inspired Morimoto restaurant and bar, a spa with swimming pool and fitness area, and two conference rooms. It is a unique place that calls to the culturally curious as a tangible celebration of harmony, joy, elegance, and hospitality.
IN THE BEGINNING WAS WINE
All Bordeaux residents are familiar with the sumptuous stone façade stretching across the 81, cours du Médoc. Built in 1871, the Hanappier and Calvet winery was extended ten years later by architect Charles Brun in the neo-Gothic style. This is the building as it appears today, with its thirteen crenellated bays framing the main entrance and a gable bearing the United Kingdom’s coat of arms set above the arched doorway – a nod to the city’s historic commercial links with the British Isles.
And so, for two centuries, the building was at the beating heart of the wine trade in this area intrinsically connected to its industry and art. The Garonne River flows nearby, facilitating global trade and exports of fine wines, cognac and brandy stored in the twenty-two vaulted cellars lit by gauze spouts. In 1966, however, a fire destroyed the cellars housing a century’s worth of grands crus classés.
In 2018, the Pichet family entrusted the property to creator Philippe Starck, who, accompanied by Jean-François Le Gal (architecture firm Advento), renovated the historic facade and created a refined five-star hotel that extends it and houses an elegant Japanese-inspired restaurant, a true link between past and future, West and East.
MONDRIAN BORDEAUX LES CARMES: SOPHISTICATED & UNIQUE
Born of a purely French spirit, Mondrian Bordeaux Les Carmes has, according to Philippe Starck, “the refinement of an oxymoron”.
From the entrance with its immense pointed-arch glass door, opens up a diorama of Bordeaux and Japanese atmospheres.A surprisingly cosmopolitan place, where everything lives together and overlaps: the soft, earthy colors naturally derived from the elegant local stone and brick, the modernity of the rough concrete reminiscent of the original building’s warehouses, the deep carpets and rugs with their organic patterns, the sophistication of the Japanese art of living, the warm light diffused by the lampshades and lanterns that line the entire space as a unifying element.
The Mondrian Bordeaux Les Carmes generates its own energy, its own sense. It is an honest and poetic place, aware of the past and belonging to the future, where it is good to live, work and be entertained all year round. The Mondrian Bordeaux Les Carmes is as warm and refined as its surroundings. The 97 rooms and suites have been designed by Philippe Starck as cocoons, intimate spaces bathed in soft, harmonious light. Here too, priority is given to noble, natural materials – leather seats, wooden doors, boiled wool curtains – and to earthy colors, as well as to clean, essential lines, particularly in the bathrooms.Everywhere, the mind is drawn to trompe-l’oeils and mental games such as the hollow molded concrete walls, whose poetic message is reflected in the adjoining mirrors.
Several rooms and suites open onto private terraces planted with luxuriant greenery, and two of the hotel’s suites can be connected for special events, giving access to a majestic terrace on the building’s roof-façade.
RESTAURANT MORIMOTO BORDEAUX: THE ESSENCE OF JAPAN IN THE HEART OF BORDEAUX
The Mondrian Bordeaux Les Carmes offers Bordeaux-exclusive access to the playful and expressive creations of chef Masaharu Morimoto. Born in Hiroshima, Japan, the world-renowned chef draws inspiration from Japanese tradition and the most innovative culinary techniques to create a surprising and refined cuisine, based on the subtlety of Japanese products and the excellence of French gastronomy. The menu features maki, sushi, sashimi and chef Morimoto’s signature dishes such as lacquered duck, alongside oysters from the Arcachon Basin, and desserts.
To discover the Japanese chef’s cuisine, Morimoto Bordeaux offers several dining options: the warm and festive restaurant, the cheerful and relaxed tree-lined terrace and the bar offering cocktails, fine wines and sakes. The 180-seat restaurant extends like a majestic theater, punctuated by red Bordeaux brick columns and elegant glassed-in wine cellars. Philippe Starck imagined it as a “place made above all for the people who will live there, a place of encounters that transports us to an elsewhere, an invented elsewhere”.
East is superimposed on the West by strong motifs: pagoda lamps nestled in lanterns, calligraphy and contemporary Japanese art. As is traditional in Japan, guests can also dine at the sushi bar, where chefs prepare Franco-Japanese specialties in the restaurant’s scenic open kitchen.
In a nod to the confidentiality required for the business that has made Bordeaux a crossroads for the international wine trade, Philippe Starck has imagined a space at the edge of the restaurant, housing a table for eight that can be privatized by means of Japanese panels. Once a month, this salon will become a discreet gastronomic table where guests can enjoy a food/wine/sake pairing specially created by Chef Morimoto and his teams.
As in Japan, where bistros – Izakayas – and wine bars are an integral part of the culture, the bar offers creative cocktails, spirits and fine wines, as well as sake and Japanese beers. The cellar is a tribute to the origins of the building, housing over 10,000 bottles, including prestigious Bordeaux wines alongside a curated international selection. The joyful, festive spirit of the Izakaya reigns here.
Luminous heart of Mondrian Bordeaux Les Carmes, conceived as a natural continuation of the restaurant, the 200m2 tree-lined terrace, open and protected from the hustle and bustle of the city, can seat 70 diners. These spaces come alive at nightfall to become the festive, privileged rendezvous for late afternoons and weekends; a DJ will be on hand from Thursday to Saturday evenings from 9pm.
LUMINOUS & WELCOMING WELLNESS CENTER
With a swimming pool, spa, hammam, sauna and fitness room, the Mondrian Bordeaux Les Carmes’ wellness area is a welcoming place bathed in light and dedicated to holistic well-being. The swimming pool, with its large windows opening onto the terrace, unfurls its 45m2 pool under a warm wooden ceiling. The space includes a steam room and an infra-red sauna.
The spa’s four spacious cabins – one of which is double – offer a wide range of treatments designed to enhance the well-being of body and mind, such as a number of targeted beauty rituals -ancestral, serenity or slimming-, foot reflexology, shiatsu, sophrology and guided meditation sessions. The fitness area, open 24/7 to hotel guests and members by subscription, is equipped with high-performance training machines for wellness-minded athletes.
MEETING SPACES: ELEGANT & FLEXIBLE
Bathed in natural light thanks to their proximity to the tree-lined central patio, the two conference rooms, Studio I and Studio II, are available for seminars and private events. Comfortable and elegant, both spaces provide tailor-made event services and state-of the-art technology. Available to hire as a combined 112m² space or separated into two, more intimate studios, the rooms are entirely flexible in configuration, ideally suited to everything from theater-style presentations to small meetings or large-scale banquets. The restaurant offers a varied menu for coffee breaks, lunches, dinners and cocktails.
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