Francais - Paris, France 

I was unsure about this hotel when I booked it. I choose it based on location to the train stations and price. What a pleasant surprise it turned out to be. It was a nice, clean, and comfortable, with friendly help. It has a nice little bakery across the street, and for my teenage son a McDonald’s right down the street.

I booked this hotel as I was departing by Eurostar and I wanted to be near the Gare du Nord station. I had read some very good reviews of the hotel on Trip Advisor and it sounded much better than most of those around the Gare du Nord. I also chose it because it had a no-smoking policy. Someone in his reviews had mentioned that it was only a 5 minute walk from the Gare du Nord so I thought it was just what I needed. However, that someone must have been walking on roller skates without luggage. It was a really hard walk for us dragging our luggage and took us 20 minutes. For visiting Paris it was rather convenient to have the Gare de L'Est just a few steps away. The room was surprisingly quiet for one near a major train station. The quad room we had booked was really tiny and smelled of cigarette smoke. It was just a smaller than normal double room into which they had squeezed another 2 beds, and we had to climb over our luggage to get into bed. We had a family of 2 adults and 2 children under 11 years old. I shouldn't have been too disappointed as I had expected most Paris hotels in this price range are like that. However, again, I had been led to expect otherwise by reviews on this site. There was a good selection at breakfast ( Continental) including some child friendly options like Strawberry Nesquick and very good croissants, a cold meat and cheese platter and eggs you boil yourself, yoghurts, good coffee for E8.50. 1 child eats free if parents are eating but the other child pays the full adult price - this makes it rather expensive if the children are small eaters - you could go to any of the cafes or patisseries along the same street and order yourselves an a la carte breakfast for much less. In summary, quite a good hotel for the price and star category but don't expect too much.