Note: This blog is actually 2 blogs: the posts on top are from our 2022 trip and the posts at the bottom are from a trip we took in 2018. Check the "Recent Post" column or the bottom of each post to determine the post dates.
We loved everything about our little 20-room boutique hotel, especially the location. As I said before, it’s on the tiny island that’s next to the island that Notre Dame is on. It’s a very touristy place (although about 4,500 locals live here too) and it’s right in the center of everything. Normally that’s a good thing unless it’s really warm outside so you need to leave your windows open at night, and it’s a Saturday night, or a Friday night, or a Tuesday night, well you get the picture. Even though we’re on the 5th floor (actually the 6th since the 1st floor doesn’t count as a floor), the narrow streets just seem to serve as a megaphone for all that revelry. But it’s still a great place to stay and we loved it. Except for the Internet, that not so much.
This is the front of the hotel. It’s 6 stories tall and we stayed on the top floor. The street in front is very narrow so it’s a one-way street. Most of the time it’s a pedestrian street since it’s major use is for cabs picking up and dropping people off at their hotels and service deliveries.
This is the view from our balcony, which is a real balcony, by the way. Both our bedroom and our bathroom had double doors with balconies.
Know what this is? It’s looking down 6 floors through the stair banister. Isn’t this a great shot! (Good job, Chuck, & nice shoes!)
The strange, tiny elevator stops between floors so no matter what floor you’re on, you have to walk either upstairs or downstairs to get to your room. In the elevator, the floor buttons are marked 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, and 4/5 (the lobby is on Floor 0). Guests staying on the 1st floor must go to floor 1/2 and walk down a half flight of stairs. People staying on the 2nd floor can get off at either the first floor (and walk up half a flight of stairs) or the second floor (and then walk down half a flight of stairs) and so forth. Is this normal? I have never seen this before and I think it’s very strange. And I don’t think OSHA would like it one little bit.
Often the stairs looked like this during the day because the cleaning crew has no stairs or elevator of their own. They have to lug these huge, heavy bags of sheets, towels and cleaning supplies everywhere and store them on the stairs while they work since there are literally no halls on the floors, just doors at the top of the stairs.
I love these authentic looking lights in the halls.
The stairs down into the dungeon – AKA the breakfast room.
The continental breakfast was always generally the same every day. The breakfast room was actually 2 little rooms on either side of a small dining room. In addition to a small kitchen, this room had juices, coffees & teas, and all the appropriate condiments. In the kitchen is Mariska, who was super nice and accommodating to us, in spite of the language barrier.
. . . and this one held ham and cold meats, cheeses, fresh fruits, and cold cereals. But the real treat is on the tables – – baskets and baskets of a big variety of fresh pastries. On our last day, the pastries were delivered to the hotel late and the croissants were still warm! Yum!
The dining room is between the 2 serving areas. Because it’s such a small hotel, you get to know the other guests (almost entirely English speaking) very quickly at breakfast.
In general, hotel rooms in Paris and our hotel are very small but ours has a small sofa bed in it so it’s technically a triple. But it would be tight for 3 people. I wouldn’t say those apartments across the street are close to us, but the room across from ours had a music stand in the window with a piece of music on it and it was a Chopin Etude.
The hotel staff was fabulous, so friendly and helpful. Denis (shown here) and Bernard were our 2 favorite desk clerks and they were wonderful. They both worked very hard to try to solve my Internet problems. And the kitchen servers/housekeepers were so friendly and accommodating, even though they spoke no English. They all contributed to making our stay a very enjoyable one and we thank them for all they did.
I Love Paris in the Springtime 