Paris Accommodation
Have you found a hotel like none other? Share your positive or negative experiences at your hotel in Paris - and we will post it.
Hostel Near Gare du Nord: Peace and Love
It takes approximately 10 minutes to walk from the Peace & Love Hostel, 245 Rue Lafayette, Metro Jaures to Gare du Nord train station where the Eurostar pulls in from London.
What I immediately liked about this Paris hostel is its location just opposite St. Martin’s canal. On a spring day, the canal looks great (and some of the rooms have views of the canal) It’s also just across the street from the Metro. You can get to every part of Paris if you have the Metro at your fingertips. This …
Date: April 23rd, 2008 |
No Comments
Spanish is Spoken: B&B in Paris
Finding clean, inexpensive lodging in Paris can be a challenge, but what if you’re also hoping for a warm welcome in Spanish? I just found this cheery looking B&B offered through Alcoves & Agapes B&B service and noted that your host speaks fluent Spanish and is well-traveled in South America.
This looks like the ideal spot for Spanish-speaking visitor to Paris who plans on staying for 8 days or longer and wants to get to a local resident. The rates according to the most recent posting starts at 65 Euros per night (depending upon your length …
Date: April 16th, 2008 |
No Comments
Honeymoon Hotel Par Excellence: Hotel Raphael
Few of us can afford the mind-boggling hotel rates starting at $775 (490 Euros) for a basic room at the Hotel Raphael - and capping at just under $9,500 (6000 Euros) for the best suite. But we can dream. Or you can see the short film ‘Hotel Chevalier’ which is the R-rated opening short for the “Darjeeling Limited.”
Even though I’ve never set foot in the Hotel Raphael, I sensed immediately that the invented ‘Hotel Chevalier’ was actually the Hotel Raphael (noted in the credits). If your wedding plans do allow for such a splurge, you might want to see this short film to get the full impact of spending a few days in most romantic setting.
Needless to say the arrival of Natalie Portman on the scene adds to the allure, but even before Portman’s arrival, hotel fans will love the traditional French furnishings and the ‘rechampi’ or intricately painted wall moldings.
If you’re interested in taking a peek at Hotel Raphael’s interiors, you can visit the Hotel Raphael’s website for their video walk-through, but I think the Hotel Chevalier probably does a better job of capturing the ‘romance’ mixed with a little sense of the practical.
Date: March 31st, 2008 |
No Comments
Hotels around Gare du Nord Train Station
Photo by Chris Card Fuller ©2008
The first question you should be asking yourself when considering a hotel in Paris is the safety of the neighborhood. Quite honestly, the Gare du Nord (10th arrondissement) neighborhood would not be the place I’d suggest for anyone coming to Paris for the first time. Today’s walk around the Gare du Nord only confirmed my feelings.
That being said, it is also the sad fact that this is where the famous Eurostar arrives from London. I guess when they were …
Date: February 20th, 2008 |
No Comments
Christmas Eve - No Room at the Inn
“Gimme Shelter!”
Photo by Chris Card Fuller ©2007
Even as much as one loves being in Paris, when you’re a student and far from home during Christmas vacation, the prospect of being alone in Paris for Christmas day may not be cheery. That’s why another student, Kathy, and I decided to hop on a train with our Eurail passes for Spain. We’d take a break from French lessons and try to practice our high school Spanish for two weeks.
Kathy had found this hotel castle in Jaen, in south-central Spain. She read the hotel description in a guidebook. The thought of staying in a real medieval castle thilled us both. We planned to get as far south as Granada where it was sure to be warmer and sunnier than Paris at this time of year.
Date: December 25th, 2007 |
No Comments
Hostels and Budget Hotels in Montmartre
Lamia at The Hotel New Montmartre (2 stars) (This hotel has recently been renovated)
An important part of making your stay here pleasant is finding Paris hostels or hotels where the reception staff is kind and helpful. Because we already have lodging in Paris, I can’t give you an account of the sleeping experience at some of these hostels and hotels, but I can tell you about the neighborhood and what you might expect for a front-desk reception.
Please remember to check out customer reviews and their experiences. This post is intended primarily to give you some photographic views of hostels and hotels and is definitely no substitute for talking with those who’ve actually stayed at these locations. You’ll find, particularly with hostels that guests’ impressions vary dramatically depending on their expectation level.
First of all, the Montmartre neighborhood has plenty of charm - especially if you distance yourself from the hill-top and Place du Tertre jumble. Of course you’ll want to hike up the steps to enjoy the great view of Paris, and look at the artists’ sketches & paintings displayed on Place du Tertre, but you’ll be happy to find sleeping accommodations farther down the hill, away from the tourist crush.
Date: April 22nd, 2008 |
No Comments
Hotels Near the RER B
One of the least expensive ways to get from Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport to central Paris is by taking the RER B line of the SNCF/RATP public transport. It costs 8.20 Euros.
French visitors to Paris find the city just as expensive as foreigners do - the 50 Euro-a-night hotel is almost history, so Huguette and I were really delighted to stumble into the one-star Hotel Floridor, right next to the Denfert-Rochereau exit for the RER B line.
Because the hotel was doing some construction work, …
Date: April 4th, 2008 |
1 comment
Honeymoon Hotels in Paris
Hotel Regina, located on the Rue du Rivoli is right across the street from the Tuileries Gardens and the Louvre. This is the place you want to be if you plan on spending a great deal of time on the Right Bank, especially at the museum or visiting boutiques on Rue St. Honore.
You may be making a splurge like this once in your life - so you want to get it right.
It’s been about twenty years since my ‘then fiance/now husband’ treated me to a hotel splurge in Paris - and he must have picked the right hotel- because we’re still here! By the way, he hedged his bets and picked two Paris hotels (two nights at each hotel) just to make sure.
However, the hotel industry has gone through major changes in the past twenty years. No longer can the icons of Paris’s luxury hotels rest on the laurels. The rapidity of word-of-mouth, thanks to sites like Trip Advisor customer reviews lets you know soon enough, if the $900-per-night establishment is going to nickle and dime you for internet service.
Because we live in Paris, I can’t give you a first hand (recent) account of staying in any of the hotels I’ve earmarked for you, but here are the hotels I would choose if a special someone might suggest it’s time to celebrate twenty years of traveling together through the world - and through life.
By the way, honeymoons can be celebrated anytime you’re feeling romantic (the hotel doesn’t have to know you’ve actually been married for ten or twenty years - or you’re not ‘quite’ married).
So if the question comes up - where would you like to stay for a night? Here are my choices:
Date: March 10th, 2008 |
2 comments
Grand Hotels for Grand Train Stations
If you love taking trains, you may not always love the idea of searching for a hotel nowadays in the vicinity of train stations. In many cities ‘train station hotels’ have a negative connotation. Dingy is the first word that comes to find.
In Paris, you can still find one of the grand hotels that built its fame hand -in hand with the construction of the Gare St. Lazare train station.
Grand Hotel Terminus’s first stones were set in 1888. Known today as the Hotel Concorde …
Date: February 20th, 2008 |
No Comments
Hostel Booking Websites for Paris
Because Paris is a must-see city on so many European backpacking tours, it’s no wonder that the city is simply teeming with hostels. When you’re trying to research the best places to stay before you get there, however, that’s not always a good thing. There are so many hostels to choose from, and what’s more there are tons of hostel booking sites out there, too, offering the same Paris hostels at the same prices. Too much choice is sometimes a problem.
You may find small differences between the sites, and you’ll no doubt find …
Date: December 5th, 2007 |
No Comments
