Learn French: Nous visitons un nouvel établissement luxueux. - We are visiting a new luxurious establishment.

In French, certain masculine singular adjectives change their form when placed in front of a noun starting with a vowel or a mute H. This avoids a vowel clash and makes pronunciation smoother. Because établissement is masculine and starts with a vowel, nouveau changes to nouvel.

Why does nouvel come before the noun, but luxueux comes after?

When a noun has multiple adjectives, each follows its own placement rule. Nouveau (or nouvel) belongs to a small group of common adjectives describing Beauty, Age, Goodness, or Size (BAGS) that go before the noun. Luxueux is a standard descriptive adjective, so it follows the normal rule of going after the noun.

Could I use rendre visite à instead of visiter in this sentence?

No, rendre visite à is only used when you are visiting people. Because an établissement (establishment or facility) is a place, you must use the verb visiter.

If the noun were feminine, would we still use the special nouvel form?

No, nouvel is exclusively used for masculine nouns. If the noun were feminine, you would just use the standard feminine form nouvelle, regardless of whether the noun starts with a vowel or a consonant (for example, une nouvelle entreprise).