I was booked in to Hotel de France by a colleague. When I learned of the hotel details I checked this site to see what other guests' experiences were like and was rather worried to see how bad past reviews were. I even tried to change the booking, but Paris was full at that time, so I swallowed hard and planned to put it all down to "a cultural experience". Well, perhaps it was having pretty low expectations to start with, but I was pleasantly surprised. As noted by others the hotel is well placed in walking distance to key sights, and only 50m from the Metro, and close to many restaurants. The lobby is basic, the lift as tiny as all the other two star places, but my room was fine - even great. It was one of the largest rooms I've ever had in Paris, clean, no smells apart from cleaning products, adequate bathroom, fantastic floor to ceiling French (what else?) doors opening onto a functional balcony with table and chairs overlooking Rue Monge. When I checked in the afternoon sun was streaming in. Maybe the rooms vary - in which case ask for #55, but on the 5th floor the street noise was not too bad. I dealt with perhaps five different people on the front desk - all were professional and helpful, one even lent me his cell phone to make a call. The small basement breakfast room is similarly fine and the basic breakfast of coffee, baguette and croissant was adequate. My single gripe was having to wait until 1pm for my room to be ready - no big deal with plenty of nearby cafes. Overall I was quite pleased and would stay there again happily.








