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France Hotel Reviews
Hotel Welcome Goes Perfect With Sea Views and French Wine
March 20, 2007 at 9:15 AM | 0 Comments
Celebrities from Jean Cocteau to the Rolling Stones have spent time in Villeranche-sur-mer, a seaside French village neatly located between Nice and Monte Carlo, but without the overwhelming crowds. This weeks UK Times raved about Villeranche-sur-mer and has one big recommendation: stay at the Hotel Welcome.
Hotel Welcome is a 36-room place directly on the water, and after a 2002 renovation, each of the rooms has a balcony with a view over the sea. The Times suggests that, although the rooms are simple, the location is so perfect that "you can while away a portion of your weekend watching the comings and goings along the front".
You have to leave the hotel to get to a restaurant, but not if you just want a drink: the terrace-level Wine Bar takes care of that quite nicely. And they reckon it's just a hundred yards to nice restaurants anyway. While enjoying a stay at the Hotel Welcome, you can go diving, take a boat to Cannes or Monaco, rent your own sail boat, or just enjoy some good French wine. We pick the wine.
[Photo: BenYoe]
Related Stories:
· Hotel Welcome reviews [TripAdvisor]
· Instant Weekend: Villefranche [Times UK]
France Hotel Reviews
Sleep on a Luxury Boat in France
Where: FranceFebruary 22, 2007 at 9:34 AM | 0 Comments
If you're sick of staying in French hotels that are bolted to the ground (we like to call them, simply, buildings), then it's time to get into a stylish French boat hotel. The Times UK this week raved about a night on the Napoleon, a luxury hotel boat in France. A 129 foot long converted barge, it sleeps 12 people, and comes with all the luxuries you'd want like heated towel rails in the ensuite bathrooms, a sundeck whirlpool bath and even fresh flowers for each "room".
The reviewer was also rather smitten with the "handsome young crew" who served up champagne and fancy snacks as guests checked in. Private excursions or day sightseeing tours can also be included. If you don't mind your hotel room chugging along at about 5 miles per hour, this might be the holiday for you. Trips are usually on the Rhone through Provence. But luxury hotel boats come at a price--almost $5500 per person for a five day trip, based on two people sharing a double room.
[Photo: ClydeHouse]
Related Stories:
· Boat du Rhone [Times UK]
Cubicle Dreamin'
Cubicle Dreamin': Night in a Treehouse
February 19, 2007 at 1:45 PM | 0 Comments
Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.
In this episode, Hotel Maven Amanda K conjures up a childhood dream.
When I was a kid, I was always really mad that my parents hadn't bought a house with a big enough tree to build a treehouse in. But now that doesn't matter because some nice people in France have created an even better treehouse for me, at the Orion B&B, featured in this week's Guardian as the "ultimate treehouse". This one includes a whole bathroom and Wifi (not that I knew I wanted Wifi when I was a kid). Or as they put it:
To live in a treehouse, perched high in the branches with the birds, to come face to face with a squirrel on waking, is to see the world from a different angle. A desire born of the need to take your time, to recharge your batteries, to find yourself again. What starts as a treat for children brings out the forgotten child in you.
Perched in trees in Provence, the treehouses are also pretty environmentally friendly--for example, the swimming pool is "naturally cleaned" with gravel and plants instead of chemicals. There are five different luxury treehouses to choose from and if you want to take your childhood pals, you can choose the Colonel Haiti treehouse which sleeps up to 6. And it has a perfect view.
Related Stories:
· St Paul de Vence reviews [TripAdvisor]
· The Ultimate Treehouse [Guardian UK]
Cubicle Dreamin'
Cubicle Dreamin': The French Middle of Nowhere
January 15, 2007 at 4:45 PM | 0 Comments
Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.
In this episode, Hotel Maven Amanda K picks out her first choice for a french foodie getaway. Enjoy.
Amongst foodies, superstar chef Michel Bras is better known for serving up gourmet dishes than providing us with a good hotel, but the Hotel Michel Bras in the southern Auvergne region of France is really stunning. Some might say it's in the middle of nowhere but it's a very beautiful nowhere, high up in the mountains and built right on a small hill-top.
So since right now I'm starving, and I'm craving good scenery after being stuck in the city far too long, then the middle of nowhere, France, is where my cubicle dreaming is taking me today. Luxury, relaxation and great food don't come cheap: the best room costs almost $500 a night and breakfast (for one) is almost $35. But you can be sure the breakfast is good, and you can be sure you won't have to stare out at skyscrapers or hear peak-time horns honking. You might have to fight with local guests coming to enjoy the restaurant, but you're the one who'll be able to float back to your comfortable room while they have to drive back home.
[Photo: Chez Pim]
Related Stories:
· Michel Bras reviews [TripAdvisor]
Hotel Hell
Grand Name But No Grandeur at Hotel Napoleon
December 7, 2006 at 12:43 PM | 0 Comments
Why do sites like HotelChatter or TripAdvisor exist? Perhaps so that potential travelers can read our advice and ignore it, like British blogger missketeers who spent a month in France on a training course recently. From Paris he and his work pals were wizzed 45 minutes out to Fontainebleau to the Hotel Napoleon:
I was ushered into the reception of Hotel Napoleon which looked respectable enough but I knew had troubles lurking ahead (we had read some etripadvisor.com website advising us DO NOT EVER GO TO THE HOTEL NAPOLEON, worst hotel ever, etc.).
Okay, let's give him the benefit of the doubt: it sounds like his company might've booked this accommodation for him. Things progress well at first--he's lucky enough to score a room bigger than the broom closet flat he's using in London, which makes it all seem not so bad. At least for a minute or too.
However I was unpleasantly surprised to find that 1) the walls are padded, and 2) the walls are scratched, like the top layer of the wall was peeling off EVERYWHERE. And this was a flippin' three star hotel!! As one of my colleague put it cleverly " It's the sort of room you rent per hour, not per night".
We hate to say "I told you so", so we won't. And sure, sometimes there are travelers who just get a bad deal at an otherwise good place. But when every bit of feedback includes words like "worst" and "never", you've really gotta start searching for somewhere else to rest your head.
Related Stories:·
Hotel Napoleon reviews [TripAdvisor]
France Hotel Reviews
Dragons and Croissants in Strasbourg
November 27, 2006 at 10:05 AM | 0 Comments
If you're not afraid of dragons, try out the Hotel du Dragon in Strasbourg, north-east France. Strasbourg's a sweet German-influenced town near the border, and in fact the Dragon name comes not from any suspicion of haunting but a German family named Drachenfels who owned the hotel back in 1466 (yep, more than 500 years ago). Drachen means dragon, and that's the name they've stuck with since the 1600s when even Louis XIV spent a night there.
Half of the original hotel building was torn down in 1870 to make way for a school (it's still there, and the morning bell might wake you up); but some of it remains, and it's kind of a cool feeling to sleep somewhere that's been standing since 1345. Fortunately, they have kept it renovated and touched up over the centuries, and what stands today is a simple but pleasant hotel with some unmistakably French touches.
Breakfast is one of them--croissants galore and hot chocolate--and the art gallery you'll find in the dining rooms is another with oddly modern paintings and sculptures for sale featuring some kind of French style that we just can't interpret.
Possibly safer to pull your wallet out only to pay the accommodation bill and not to take home any apparent works of art.
[Photo: Love Paris]
Related Stories:
·
Hotel du Dragon reviews [TripAdvisor]
France Hotel Reviews
Villa Florentine's Immaculate Concept
August 3, 2006 at 12:24 PM | 1 Comment
August in France is a peculiar thing. Parisians are all in the south and thus, Paris is actually one big fanny-pack trap full o' tourists.
So why not go somewhere safe like somewhere in the middle of France. Somwhere like Lyon.The French people will still be there and so you'll still see the real deal. A bourgeois city is mixed with a University set of youth making hauty life and partying until dawn both possible.
Hotel Villa Florentine is one of the top rated hotels in Lyon, a division of Relais & Chateaux. They pull off old and new the way it should be done in France: period furniture and internet access all in one happy room.
According to a reviewer, the hotel is...immaculate:
It is utterly delightful in every respect. It occupies a lovely position [not as far up the hill as we had thought, but far enough to give lovely views, especially from the swimming pool terrace]. The interior is immaculate. Our room, number 1, with a very spacious terrace, was just lovely, very spacious and completely immaculate
Two immaculates in one short description. We think it's safe to say this place is clean. The restaurant is highly esteemed and you'll never believe how the breakfast was described. If you guessed immaculate, you're right! The surprising part is, it was from a separate review. Perhaps, they should consider a name change at this point.
Image via Guillaumebrialon/Flickr
Related Stories:
· Villa Florentine Reviews [TripAdvisor]
