France Hotels

Other Reviews from VirtualTourist Members

Holiday Inn Roissy: Great hotel near airport - CDG

by ozpaul

I had some time between flights, so I decided to stay near CDG rather than staying in Paris for the night. This hotel is exceptional - the room was spacious - the bed very comfortable after a very long flight - and the staff were fabulous. I did not hear a thing during the night. They even taught me how to pull a beer from a beer tap downstairs in the bar!!

Food at the hotel is great - however, the village of Roissy is only a five minute walk from the hotel. Restaurants, shops and charming village architeture. A very organised and simple to undertand bus shuttle sevice operates about every 20 mins/half hour from hotel to airport and back again.

Tour de France Accommodations

by wandering360

Accommodations will be scarce!

The official overview of the Tour de France route is announced in October but since the tour organizers, the Press, and the cycling teams themselves are huge in numbers, all of the hotels within a 20+km radius of the smaller Departure / Arrival towns will likely be fully-booked BEFORE the route is even announced.

So if you truly wish to stay in or near these towns, you may have to lower your accommodations requirements (i.e. Star Ratings) or resort to camping, camping cars, etc. (Note that camping cars have known to be booked up to a year in advance.)

Tim Hotel - Louvre, Paris: Most central, most fun, most "French" hotel

by keepon05

Small rooms, miniscule french bathroom, no aircon in our room, cafe's below the windows start putting out the tables, saying bonjour, walking their dogs from 6am. Almost across the road from the Louvre, best first introduction to France and Paris. Also helpful and some speak English!

Location, location, location

St. Christopher's Inn: Out of the Way Party Hostel

by vcr89

Super sketchy location, and took at least 15 minutes to get anywhere interesting by subway. The room itself was nice--very clean, with lockers below the bunks and curtains. However, the curtains proved to be much needed. The hostel very much promoted partying, and people would come into the room at 3am, giggling, loudly opening their lockers, and switching on lights with little courtesy to their sleeping dorm mates. The washrooms were used by the whole floor and could have done with much more regular cleaning.

The hostel was very large and it was difficult to get to know people or staff. There was a club in the basement (I didn't investigate) and an on-site restaurant (Belushi's) with very mediocre food. Two breakfasts were offered--cereal and baguettes for free, or the good stuff for a pricey 5 euros.

The best part of the hostel was the tie with New Europe tours. A guide would come by every morning to help people get to the tour start-point, which was very useful, especially if you had just arrived and were still unfamiliar with the city.

Internet cafe (expensive), on-site club and restaurant.

Hotel Bassano, Paris: Bad experience

by RoseFerreira

I am in Paris at the moment and as soon I arrive to my home country will for sure write about my experience.

Domaine L'Arbrelle: Chenonceaux, Amboise and Blere

by Suet

<> Definitely Chenonceaux. I love the decor and the way the rooms are set out with all the original furniture of that period. You will like the bedroon of the White Queen, so named because after the death of her husband, she always wore white. The ceiling of her bedroom is painted black with stars on it. The tour is well set out with audiophones in the language of your choice.

I think that staying in either Amboise or Blere is fine, although you might find Blere a bit small for your liking. They have a top class restaurant there called Le Cheval Blanc which is quite pricey but stunning food.

Amboise is much more of a tourist town, you can visit the Chateaux in the town itself, go and see Les Clos Luce which is where Leonardo da Vinci lived and died. The house is amazing as well as the reconstruction of his inventions. The gardens are beautiful as well. Lunch sitting opposite the Chateaux in Amboise is quite special. You can walk along the banks of the Loire after lunch.

Tours is quite a large town. Plenty of shopping, a big bridge to walk across, things to see and do in the evenings and also sitting outside in the cafes. They sometimes have outdoor concerts of singing, music and dancing in the town square. Lots of little cafes and quiet corners with fountains. Tours is a little far for all of the Chateaux.

If you want to see all of them in one day, you could do worse than to hire a small plane and fly along the river. Once in a lifetime experience and worth it if you have the money.

Staying at l'Arbrelle is also a brilliant experience if you like exceptional food. La Directrice is very French and the Chef Jacqueline (I do so hope she hasn't moved) was studying for her Michelin Star the last time we were there.

I've covered the Amboise/Blere area extensively as I used to live there, so please have a look at the following links.

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/66ac0/21f34/

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/66ac0/20e48/2/

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/66ac0/21f34/3/

Gites de France: Rent a small country house or village apartment

by Beausoleil

If you can base yourself somewhere for a week, Gites de France are rental apartments or small houses in rural areas and small towns that are often incredibly cheap and often delightful.

Gites de France are rental units so you have the option of doing your own cooking and that saves a lot of money if you don't mind cooking. We usually do cold cereal in the morning and bread, cheese, fruit and wine in the evening. We eat out at noon because we're usually touring someplace far from the house. However, if you have a large family or small children, cooking is a great way to vacation with the family and have a more relaxing time together.

These places come in all price ranges so find one that suits your budget. Often some of the least expensive are the prettiest and friendliest.

To us, one of the most fun parts of renting a Gite is meeting the owners. They are there to meet you, explain how things work in the house and give you tourist information. In very rural areas, they may speak little or none of your language but they are so kind and welcoming, it really makes no difference. We have often found owners not sure of our language skills who invite a friend who speaks English to meet us the first day.

We have met some wonderful people from renting in France and highly recommend it. It is so nice to unpack in your own little house and have a "home" to return to after a busy day sightseeing in the region.

Another big advantage is that many gites have a washing machine so you can do your laundry. Most of these will have a clothes line out back; few, if any, will have a dryer. Lately many have dishwashers too but we use so few dishes that we've not needed these.

You will need a car or some means of transportation for many gites.

Place de Clichy Hotel: A little strange!!

by ozpaul

This has to be one of the funniest places that I have ever stayed. The staff are very friendly and even appreciated my French. The elevator has to be one of the funniest experiences I have ever had. Do not attempt to take more than 1 person and 1 bag at a time. Breakfast is monotonous, however, the location is fabulous!!

The elevator!!!! The door handles - they all fell off the doors at one stage during our stay!! I have classified this hotel under adventure travel - it is an adventure to stay here!!

Cheap chain of hotels

by zone_de_guerre

If its any help there is a chain of French Hotels that are very cheap...http://www.hotelformule1.com/ Hope this helps!

Abricotel: Economy hotel

by maria.dyachkova

I stayed there twice with my friend, we had a double room, cant say its a big room but enough for two who came to enjoy the city and just needed place where to sleep..
The second time i came they gave as a discount as a regular clients.. also we had breakfast included, common continental breakfast, but it was good!
Stuff is very friendly and they always tried to answer our questions and tried to assist us when we asked.. Always polite and smiling!!

Its a small hotel, it doesnt have a pool or whatever 5*hotel have, but its located in just few steps from the subway, so it easy to get to any place from it.

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