27. Paris Accommodation - Sorted

Well I finally found a hotel which I'm happy with. I hadn't realised until a couple of days ago that checkout for the place I'd originally booked was between 10.00 and 11.00 am and I have a flight at ten o'clock which means I have to checkout about 7.30am. So, it was back to the drawing board. Yes, I had booked a couple of others but wasn't completely happy with them, there was just something about each one that just, I don't know, they didn't make me feel glad to be there.

 Anyway, I happened to come across a hotel which looked really nice and I liked the area it was in, so I booked a single room with a double bed even though it was quite a bit higher priced - 520 euros. When I checked the currency conversion from euro to dollars I received quite a jolt - $800! Wow! No way could I afford eight hundred bucks for four nights.

 Then I went to the hotel website to see if it was cheaper booking directly and found not only was it cheaper but they have single rooms with a single bed at 85 euro a night - 360 euro for four nights. Although the single bed room isn't as "nice" or pretty as the double bed room, it has the same amenities, the only real difference is the size - 11 m² compared to 12 m². Both are at the back of the hotel with a "courtyard" view.

 

Above: Hôtel du Levant rooms
Apart from the usual, the rooms have a safety deposit box, minibar and a complimentary tray of coffee and tea, which is a bonus. One of the things I liked about this hotel is they have a lounge area with boardgames and newspapers, which means when you get back to the hotel you're not relegated to staying in the room, you can relax in the lounge area which to me is good indeed. The other thing that did it for me is the street the hotel is in is full of restaurants and eating places, so there's always someone milling around in the evening. Much nicer when you want to take an evening stroll, you're not is some quiet road with no life or vibrancy.

 

Above: Exterior
The hotel looks pretty good from the front doesn't it?

 

Above: Street hotel is located
This is the street the hotel is in - just what I imagined. Full of tables outside, people drinking coffee or sipping wine, the hubub of voices all around. This is the Paris I want, this is what I want to see at night.

26. Paris Accommodation

As I'm now having four nights in Paris instead of seven, I thought it might be a good idea to find a place a bit closer to the tourist attractions. Remember, the main "sites" I really want to see are the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, the Galeries Lafayette and walk along the Champs-Élysées. With this in mind, I've been searching for something with a similar cost to the place I booked back in October. Huh! Had I been smart, I would have booked a few places back then and made a decision later. As it is, many of the cheaper places are booked out and what's left is slim pickings. Naturally if I had a bigger budget, I'd have a bigger choice, but ... we have to do the best we can with what we have. The other problem for me is I need something with a lift - having arthritis, walking up and down four or five flights stairs, especially lugging a suitcase would make it a bit difficult.

Left or Right Bank?
Of the two places I found, one is in the same area (Saint-Germain/Luxembourg) the other is on the other side of the river in the Louvre/Châtelet area. I wish I'd had the foresight to book something in the Marais area a couple of months ago - I just realised today, most of the "tourist" sites are north of the river and this would have been one of the best areas for seeing Paris tourist spots on foot. Unfortunately, the hotels available now are rather pricey - many of the cheaper places are fully booked.

Hôtel Saint Pierre
This one is in the St. Germaine/Luxembourg area, about 1 km north from the first place I booked, at 4 rue de l'Ecole de Medecine so it will be much quicker getting to the "other" side of the river. It's only 32 euro more, so the price difference isn't too great.

 

Above: Single room

According to the booking site, the room has as follows-
Room Facilities: Safe, Air conditioning, Desk, Heating, Carpeted, Soundproof, Shower, Hairdryer, Free toiletries, Toilet, Bathroom, Telephone, Satellite channels, Flat-screen TV
Room Size: 12 m²
Bed Size(s): 1 twin

This is what it looks like from outside.

 

Above: Hotel exterior

The hotel lift looks pretty ancient.

 

Above: An antiquated lift

Having checked google maps, I find it is 1.6 kms from the Louvre, whereas the first place I booked is 2.2 kms (from the Louvre) - so 600 metres closer! It's also closer to the RER B line which I will need to access when I arrive and depart.
The upside too is it has air conditioning, the downside is there isn't an outdoor area or terrace. (Being a smoker, I don't much fancy standing on the street at night)


Hôtel Flor Rivoli
This is the hotel I found north of the river and is in the Louvre/Châtelet area. The main metro lines are available at Châtelet Metro Station, which is only 220 metres away. The Louvre is 850 metres, Georges Pompidou Centre an 11 minute walk and the Latin Quarter, 10 minutes by foot, according to the booking site.

 

Above: Hôtel Flor Rivoli

It doesn't look very inviting, does it? Sort of cold, not welcoming.

This is the single room

 

Above: Single room

Provided with free Wi-Fi and a satellite TV, this soundproofed room has a private bathroom with free toiletries and hairdryer.
Room Facilities: Safety Deposit Box, Heating, Hairdryer, Toilet, Bath or Shower, TV,
Telephone, Satellite Channels, Wake Up Service/Alarm Clock
Room Size: 10 m²
Bed Size(s): 1 single bed

Free Wi-Fi for me isn't necessary, I don't need a hairdryer and it doesn't have air conditioning. It does have its own toilet though. Considering there's no air conditioning, (the fist place I booked doesn't have air con either), it probably isn't that much of an improvement. For 100 euro more, the only advantage I can see is it's a shorter walk to the tourist sites. Something I'll have to think about.

Taking things into account, now that I'm writing this up, I can better see the advantages between the three places and apart from a shorter walk, this last place doesn't really have much to offer, whereas the Hôtel Saint Pierre has the advantage of air con and a shorter walk - maybe not that much shorter, but a bit.

There is also the street itself to be considered. There are buses running along the street of the first place (Pension Residence du Palais) and it has a (small) balcony. I think the street itself looks a bit nicer too.

Actually, I just did a "google" walk with both places in the St. Germaine area, and the walk from the Hôtel Saint Pierre was much nicer.

17. Paris Accomodation

I've been spending a lot of time looking for a hotel in Paris and they are pretty pricey. For someone who's used to going around SEA where you're paying around $30 for a nice room in a guesthouse or hotel, it's a bit of a shock looking for accommodation in Europe. Asian prices they aint! As I wrote in a previous post, it's either $30 to $40 a night for a dorm bed in a hostel, or you're looking at nearly a thousand dollars or more for a week in a hotel. A few nice budget hotels I found are booked out. I've decided after all, not to go for a place in the Marais area.

I did find a place in the 6th arrondissement in the Saint Germaine area, the
Pension - Résidence du Palais on Rue d'Assas, opposite the Luxembourg Gardens. The photos below are from their website. I thought the courtyard garden sounded and looked pretty and asked when I booked for a balcony overlooking the courtyard. I reasoned it would be more private sitting there than facing the street. Plus, it would be nice looking at a garden courtyard. This decision was based on their pictures.

Above: Room at hotel
This is the photo shown for a single room - the strange thing with this photo is the information says single bed, yet clearly this is a double bed. According to the hotel information, the room size is 15 m² - the same as a double. Room Facilities, Balcony, View, Cable Channels, Flat-screen TV, Desk, Wardrobe/Closet, Shower, Hairdryer, Bathroom, Shared Toilet. All the toilets are in the hallway. That's nice - the telly is in the room but the toilet is outside!

Above: Dining room and breakfast
Doesn't this look lovely? Lovely furniture, fresh rolls/croissants and glasses of orange juice. Yet when reading the reviews, you only get a croissant/bread and coffee or tea, no juice. One has to wonder why the hotel shows breakfast as having orange juice if you don't get any. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm complaining, it's the principle of the thing. If it is shown as breakfast, then it should be part of breakfast. If for example, it was written breakfast includes bread or croissant and tea or coffee, then okay, fine. You know. Clever people who run this place, they don't actually say what breakfast consists of, they just show photos!

Above: Front of hotel and courtyard
The hotel is above/next to a cafe on the corner and the courtyard is somewhere behind. Based on these photos, I asked for a balcony overlooking the courtyard. However...I came across an independent photo of the courtyard and it looks nothing like this.


Guest photos

Above: Courtyard
This is the photo I found of the courtyard. As you can see, it bears little or no resemblance to the courtyard photos supplied by the hotel. Perhaps after all a balcony overlooking the street would be preferable. The view wouldn't be of a courtyard or greenery - you'd be seeing ugly hotel walls. You'd have to be actually standing on the balcony looking down. And still, it isn't a pretty sight is it?

Above: Stairs!
Another thing I learned today, according to one guest review, they had to climb two flights of stairs as the lift doesn't go all the way which wasn't advertised. I'm going to have to email them asking for a room on a floor which the lift does got to.

I used Booking.com to make my reservation as don't have to pay until you arrive and they offer free cancellation. There were two prices, € 409.50 ($587) and € 455 ($652). The lower price is the non-refundable figure, so I chose the higher price. Better to pay a bit more in case you do cancel. I'm looking around on airbnb and have found a number of studios/apartments for similar prices. If I find something I really like then I'll go for one of them. The thing to remember about booking a place with airbnb, when you click on the "Book it" button, it doesn't mean you've got it - you have to wait for the owner to accept your booking. Another thing to know is they have three standardised cancellation policies. Strict, Moderate and Flexible. The host chooses which one.
Strict - For a 50% refund, cancellation must be made seven full days prior to listing's local check in time,
Moderate - For a full refund, cancellation must be made five full days prior to listing's local check in time and
Flexible - For a full refund, cancellation must be made a full 24 hours prior to listing's local check in time.
The Airbnb service fee is non-refundable. I will discuss this fully in a later post with information about Airbnb.

1. Paris Day Trips

Beyond Paris seems like a really good site for day trips. Can be done using public transport - chateaux, gardens, towns, churches.