Vert Galant - Paris, France     

We stayed at this hotel at the beginning of July 2008 after reading a small review of the place in National Geographic Traveler's Paris Issue. Our room was super clean, comfortable, and was super close to three different metro stops. The Gobelins metro line takes you straight to the Louvre and the other two lines nearby take you direct to the Eiffel Tower, Versailles, and other Paris locations. Pros about the Stay: 1) Room was ready when we arrived at noon. It faced the small courtyard and was ADORABLE. It was clean, comfortable, and contained a small kitchenette that had a stove, electric kettle, fridge, and sink. A small grocery store is right up the street from the hotel so we used the kitchen for drinks and snacks. 2) The bed was quite comfortable and there was a fantastic little flatscreen tv in the room. 3) Bathroom was recently remodeled and was a nice size. It was clean and nice! 4) The front desk staff were wonderfully helpful. They provided a map and showed us the fastest way to get to all of the sites we needed to. Upon leaving, they let us check out later (we had a late train) and also found us a cab to take us to the train station(too much luggage for metro riding). This was a wonderful and quiet hotel! It never felt too far from any of the Paris scene.

Booked this hotel ( by fax ) in one of my favorite parts of Paris. Close to Corvisart, Gobelins and Placed'italie metro, in a very quiet neighbourhood, although so close to all necessary amenities including car hire ( eg national/ hertz etc at Place d'talie) This meant we could dump the hire car on arrival in Paris and walk round the corner to the hotel. The glamorous lady owner( accompanied by big yellow dog) was very welcoming and not too 'in your face'- as often is the case in small off the beaten track hotels.(grrr hate that!) Our room was a good size, inoffensively decorated in what my daughter called'smoked salmon colour'. A good big bathroom- a little worn around the edges, though nonetheless clean and with plenty of towels. We had booked a 'lit supplementaire' for our 11 year old which turned out to be a camp bed and quite narrow. it would have been fine for a 6 year old , but was a bit of a tight sqeeze for our almost - teenager. We too had a kitchennette- a fridge, two rings and a sink, but alas no kettle! This seems a bit strange really, as even basic hotels provide a kettle- and, as my husband cannot do without coffee in the morning , we had to boil up the water in a saucepan!! I suspect that Mme has worked out that she can sell you a coffee in her little conservatory come breakfast room ( at 7 euro). oh well never mind- we managed. the hotel is very close to the delightful Butte aux Cailles where we ate at Cafe -just great food in a lively atmosphere-homemade chips were delicious. Also Tandem wine bar next door with a tiny menu- but run by two brilliant guys who accommodated a vegetarian in our midst! with a fantastic section of dishes. the area is full of 30-40 somethings and didn't hear an English speaker all night. On departure from Vert-galant Madame helped us book a taxi, but made a bit of a fuss about it saying that our journet was too short and she did'nt know whether a Parisan taxi would take us or not ( we wanted to get a lift to Denfert Rochereau RER to catch the train to CDG airport). Well i don't honestly know how we could have walked it as it was about 4km so she was being a bit precious about that really... Anyway FYI the taxi to Denfert Rochereau and train to the airport was good- easy access at this station and a lift to get you and the baggage onto the platform. Much cheaper than a bloody taxi all the way which would have been at least 50 euro. RER fare was only 9 euro. While we were in paris we visited the Eiffel tower-Corvisart direct to Bir-hakiem metro easy peasy. Also walked up rue Mouffetard and down to the river via Jardin des Plantes and natural history museum.. Then along the river to isle St louis, Notre Dame and on to pompidou centre. This took all day but was great and easily walkable with stops for ice cream at Bertillon and a spot of lunch at the Place Monge. Price wise Vert Galant offers a reasonable standard and I would definitely stay there again. Put it this way there are a lot worse 3* places in Paris.Sometimes you have to wonder if they take a trip to the nearest hardware shop to buy a third star to stick up outside themselves. Happily in the case of Vert Galant this is not the case!