Best Western Hotel de France - Bourg-en-Bresse, France 

My daughter & I stayed at the Best Western Hotel de France last weekend. We were on our return journey from Italy. We were greeted by a very pleasant lady at the reception, but things went downhill from there on. Our room initially smelt awful(it's strange how you get used to things, isnt it?!), the lining of the curtains was shredded, the view from the room was of a scruffy back yard and the bathroom was clean, but basic. Well, it didn't cost a lot, so we shrugged our shoulders and put up with it. We booked a table at the hotel restaurant "Chez Blanc". The decor was terrible. The beautiful panelling was painted a jaundice yellow with hideous red and green highlights. We waited a very long time to get service. We noticed that locals got served before us despite their later arrival times! The menu was comprehensive, I chose the seasonal set menu and had a very tasty terrine for the first course. The second course was fish which arrived undercooked to the point that only half of it was edible. To add insult to injury I was charged a extortionate 24 euros for a small piece of chicken and some potatoes for my daughter who is not a very adventurous eater.

Now, Bourg-en-Bresse is not the centre of the universe, it's a small town, but there are things tro see and do. The Hotel de France is well situated in the town centre and most places are within easy walking distance. First impression is good, a nice facade giving onto a square with a fountain. If you're coming by car, it's also well signposted and has a parking garage (7 Euros/night) The staff were polite and helpful, check in was efficient. The room was large, airy, nicely decorated had a comfortable queen-size bed. A bolster and just 2 soft pillows, very French, but could be better. Two windows giving onto the square, and nice view of the church. The windows do open but it is noisy, so it’s not useful to open them. The floors are wooden, so you can hear people walking above/next door/in the corridor; we didn't hear anything else from the other rooms and hopefully they didn't hear us. There is a lift, but it stops at 1/2 floors, i.e. for the 2nd floor you have to go up or down half a floors worth of stairs. In-room facilities: few... mini bar, small TV (no pay-movie channels), only CNN in English. Wifi is available at extra cost. The bathroom: A real disappointment; it was large and clean, but cheaply done. No bath (and we do like our baths!), just a cheap shower cubicle, minimal toilettries. Adequate but disappointing. We had booked a non-smoking room... problem is it had been a smoking room at some time and we could smell the stale smoke; not too bad but shouldn't have been there. Air conditioning cooled the room nicely, but the controls (in spite of a full array of buttons) seemed to be "on/off", so it quickly got too cold when on, and hot when off. Annoying. We didn't try the breakfast (which did nevertheless appear on our bill and had to be removed), but we did have dinner at the restaurant and very good it was too. Overall, we would recommend this hotel; the location is good and it was comfortable.