It has a fabulous location: a quiet, quiet street but only a ten-second walk to the main St Germain axis of shopping, strolling and dining streets. And of course, close enough to the Eiffel Tower to walk there.
It has the potential to be a great hotel - 39 rooms of varying sizes, some with terrace balconies based around a small central courtyard. And perhaps at one time it was. But its faded, battered exterior and grotesque 60s décor (original, with the original wear and grime as well) mean it's a grandma's choice if anyone's.
We were rather cheeky about the Hôtel Bellechasse in our review of design hotels in Paris. But we take it back, as if you're looking for a special hotel on a buzzing street, seconds from the Orsay Museum, a pop across the river to the Louvre, and only a short, nice walk along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower, this is the place you'll find love.
The Bellechasse is a Christian Lacroix baby, a thing which you see immediately on entering the small foyer - unmistakeable bold, bizarre mixtures of colours (including a yellow ceiling) and deep, plush fabrics. The staff are super-helpful, if rather brusque in a very French way.
Quietly sleek, it's the kind of place unassuming honeymooners spend their first night of bliss.
Just off rue St-Germain on a tiny, one-way street, you'll bump into its restaurant first, which spills out onto the pavement terrace. The clientele are usually well-dressed thirty- and fourty-somethings, with sunglasses and Versacci jeans and tiny mobile phones.
They're both on streets running off from the Champ de Mars, on which the Eiffel Tower proudly stands among a sea of screaming children and knick-knack sellers.
And they're both, well, not the crème de la hotel scene in Paris, but a decent choice at what's usually a fairly decent rate (depending on special offers).
Sigmund Freud was right. The number of requests we get for hotels near the Eiffel Tower, that King of phallic symbols, you'd think there was nothing else to see in Paris.
Okay, so it's a dramatic site. In A View to a Kill, the bizarrely-named Bond baddie May Day parachutes off the top of the Eiffel Tower after a mad chase by Bond - in fact, if you look closely, you see she actually parachutes off a platform specially made for the film.
And it's been the site of a real-life struggle as well. When Hitler rolled into the city and tried to hoist the swastika on the top of the Eiffel Tower, the sneaky French cut the lift cables so he'd have to climb the stairs to the top. In fact, his first swastika blew away in the wind, causing great hilarity, and the red-faced Nazi soldiers had to hike up their to hoist a smaller one instead.
But drama aside, let's get a couple of things straight:
It's in the first arrondissement of Paris - think the Louvre, Tuileries gardens, Opera and all that jazz. And it's one of the best of a rather pricey bunch of poor hotels in the area. Walking distance to most places in the first chapter of your guide book.
How do you beat the crappy US-Euro exchange rate without whipping yourself on holiday?
Paris ain't a cheap destination for anyone, least of all when the bottom's falling out of your currency. We've put together some insider tips for US travellers staying in the French capital. Read 'em all after the jump.
We now present you with our VIP Hotel Reviewer Series in which we hand-pick experts in the travel and media worlds and beyond to tell us what are their favorite hotels and why. Once a week, we'll feature a hotel review from said VIPs about their favorite leisure or business hotels. Pay attention: These VIPs are experts at what they do and they don't mess around when it comes to their hotels.
The next VIP in the series is Ben Mandelker, co-founder of the popular TV blog TVgasm.com. These days he's toiling away as a screenwriter in Los Angeles--ok, so maybe not toiling right this moment--but he is writing the B-Side Blog and he's been tapped to write the remake of "Easy Money" for MGM Studios. Enjoy.
Exchange rates haven't been friendly to American tourists in Paris, but luckily, it's still possible to find cheap lodging in the heart of the city. Take, for example, the Hotel du Mont Blanc. Located smack in the middle of the Latin Quarter, this two-star hotel is walking distance from some of the city's biggest attractions: the Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Jardin du Luxembourg, to name a few.
More importantly, it's mere footsteps away from the Place Saint-Michel Metro Station, which doubles as a stop for the RER, making airport trips -- not to mention excursions to Versailles -- a breeze (trains to Charles De Gaulle, Orly, and Versailles all pass through this specific station).
We mention the Hôtel Duc de Saint-Simon more as a warning than a recommendation. 
