France is blessed with more hotels and other places to stay that you can shake a stick at. If you cannot find one (or more) that suits your wallet, timetable and aspirations, you might consider sitting in an igloo or staying at home.
However, it is perhaps the broad scope of choice that, maybe, causes so much confusion? Give a bloke a choice over two or more sorts of oil and he goes into a flat spin. Hotels are no different; they just need a little explanation.
France loves classifying things and is proud of its heritage, both on a national and local level. Stars, rosettes, little chimneys and points are fluttered around like confetti. But it really is quite simple. So, with a lot of help from lots of sites on the internet, let’s start at the beginning.
How many places to stay are there to choose from?
Leaving out campsites and ‘Bed and Breakfast’ type establishments (more about them later) there are over 18,300 hotels and other places to stay in France. That is over 50 for every day of the year. Any summary must therefore include a lot of generalisation.
What classes of hotel are there?
Most hotels in France are government rated. They are inspected and rated on their level of comfort, amenities and quality of service.
The hotels are approved and checked by official authorities, then classified into six categories:
(1) No star – these are the most basic
(2) One star
(3) Two star
(4) Three star
(5) Four star
(6) Four star L (for luxury) – These are the very smartest and the most expensive.
How much do they cost?
With so many hotels to choose from, any price structure will always be a guestimate at best.
Rather than get fixated on the pure cost per night (which is out of date after a year anyway) it is perhaps more useful to look at the price differences. Here's a rough indication based on 2007 prices.
Grand Luxury/Deluxe Hotel - Four star and Four star L
Average rate per night in Paris: 405€
Average rate per night in France: 300€
First Class Hotel -Three star
Average rate per night in Paris: 340€
Average rate per night in France: 180€
Very Comfortable Hotel – Two star
Average rate per night in Paris: 151€
Average rate per night in France: 78€
Comfortable Hotel – One star
Average rate per night in Paris: 84€
Average rate per night in France: 60€
Budget & Economy Hotel – no star
Average rate per night in Paris: 52€
Average rate per night in France: 28€
This gives a price difference of nearly 800 to one thousand percent from top to bottom.
Interestingly, perhaps, the swing around the middle band, Budget to Very Comfortable, is nearly 300%.
However, do not get too hung up on the stars and prices, it is not an absolute science after all. If you are going to always stay in the best, you won't really care looking down and if you are on a tight budget (as many are) then you will only be looking at the lower range.
But, even at the lower end do please not be too disappointed or dismissive of alternatives. Budget hotels are very cheap - that's a certainty. But, maybe, for shared room occupation, it’s possible to find a good mid-range hotel at not too an exorbitant a price, even for just a few nights. That is exactly what my parents taught me, when touring holidays of Europe were not quite as popular as they are now.
What are the hidden charges and occupancy terms?
In reality, it’s all little different to the UK.
Prices, which are displayed at the hotel entrance and in the bedrooms, must include taxes and service.
Hotel rates themselves are unregulated. Usually there is an extra charge for breakfast and a surcharge can be added for an extra bed and for any reasonably secure car parking space.
In general rooms provide double or twin beds.
If you have pre-booked rooms, most hotels, big and small, will expect you to be at the reception to check-in by about 19:00. If you are going to be late it is sensible (not least good manners) to phone ahead and reconfirm both your booking and likely time of arrival. If it’s very late you need to find out how to get in, after all. I have done this several times, particularly with small hotels. More often than not, the owner will even put some food out for you.
Associations of privately owned hotels
Associations of privately owned hotels in France group together distinctive and privately owned hotels.
The range covers all categories.
From the top (4L to 3 star) These would include, chateau-hotels, and larger private houses. Typical associations would be Relais & Chateaux and Chateaux et Hotels de France.
The more mid-range priced, Relais du Silence (2 to 4 star country hotels)
The very affordable Logis de France hotels-restaurants (3 to 1-star) present all over France.
Booking methods vary. Whilst many rely on direct booking methods, where you speak to (or email / fax) the hotel itself, some use a central booking facility, like that employed by the Logis de France Association. To be honest, I find Logis' central booking facility a bit hit and miss. It's often easier to speak to the hotel directly.
Many of the hotels will have a working knowledge of English, or will find someone who can speak to you. Over the years I have spoken to student cleaning ladies and a local doctor, who just happened to be in the bar.
One thing to have in mind though. Being, in the main, privately, owned there is often no 24/7 service. Arrive late and you could well be looking at a locked door, with the proprietor snoring away.
Contact details:
Relais & Chateaux http://www.relaischateaux.com/page.php3?lang=en
Chateaux et Hotels de France http://www.chateauxhotels.com/recherche/loisirs.php?langue=EN
Relais du Silence http://www.relaisdusilence.com/EN/
Logis de France http://www.logis-de-france.fr/uk/index.htm
Hotel Chains
There are dozens of hotel chains in France.
These group standardized hotels, into very nearly homogonous places, very similar to each other and to their peers. It’s easy to say, if you have seen one Novotel you have seen all Novotels. Similarly, if you have seen one Formule 1 or Etap hotel, you might well have seen them all.
The range covers all categories, from upscale to mid-range like Accor Group (Sofitel, Novotel, Libertel, Mercure & Ibis) or Concorde Hotels, to more economical hotels near major cities (Hotel Formule 1, Etap Hotel, Balladins, Bonsaï, Première Classe).
One possible advantage of these chain hotels is that the reception is usually open 24/7.
Sometimes the very cheap chain hotels can be well away from the city or town centres, maybe on light industrial estates on the outskirts. What you will save on price, you may lose on environment or basic service.
You can get a pretty god idea where any hotel is situated by using a map search, like ViaMichelin, Mapsource, Multimap, Googlemap and Googlearth. In short, if that looks like a railway siding and motorway or a cow filled field, it probably is.
Hotel chains usually have central reservations facilities.
Contact details:
Accor Group http://www.accor.com/gb/index.asp
Etap http://www.etaphotel.com/gb/home/index.shtml
Novotel http://www.novotel.com/novotel/index.html
Sofitel http://www.sofitel.com/gb/home/index.shtml
Libertel http://www.hotels-libertel.com/
Mercure http://www.mercure.com/gb/home/index.shtml
Ibis http://www.ibishotel.com/gb/home/index.shtml
Concorde hotels http://www.concorde-hotels.com/en/
Balladins http://www.balladins.com/uk/?ref=
Bonsaï http://www.bonsai-hotels.fr/index_en.php
Première Classe http://www.premiereclasse.com/en/default.aspx
Formule 1 http http://www.hotelformule1.com/formule1/index.html
Where to stay?
The easy answer is: Wherever you fancy. It’s your holiday, after all.
By all means search out hints and tips. But, what suites one person may not please another. Above all, hotels and restaurants change. What was good 10 years ago may now be duff and visa-versa. A large part of the fun is not to be lazy or keeping playing safe. Do your own planning. If you find yourself in a bad hotel, it’s only for one night….
France is a big country, roughly twice the size of England, but with so many hotels, guest houses and camp sites, it should be easy to find one. However, a bit of help never gores amiss.
Probably the best search engine is the Michelin (the tyre people) ‘ViaMichelin’ website. This one site does everything.
It will list hotels and restaurants, many of them from the ones suggested above, in and around any place on a French map. Stick a pin in and up will come a hotel within a few miles, that I promise you. You can list the hotels, sorting by price and a number of other criteria.
It will plot your routes for you, pricing every inch of you motorised progress.
Its maps are excellent, matching as they do Michelin’s own maps of France. Play around with the site, dreaming up holidays. If nothing else it will give you a feeling for the huge rang of hotels and hotels that are out there.
You can even set up your own personal folders, saving possible hotels for each trip and overnight stay, then keep them up-to-date on your return.
All this is done through, ‘My ViaMichelin’ on the same site.
Being web based its accessible from any pc or internet café and its scope not just limited to France, alone.
I cannot recommend it any higher.
http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/int/tpl/hme/MaHomePage.htm
What more?
Guide books
The world is littered with guide books and many dedicate themselves to France.
Amongst the best and most popular are:
Michelin Red Guide: France (Michelin Red Hotel & Restaurant Guides)
Back this up with Michelin’s Green Guide to France (to the cultural / scenic bits) with its suggested tours and good maps, everything is near enough done for you.
1000 Charming Hotels and Guesthouses in France (Michelin Guides)
French Bed and Breakfast (Alastair Sawday's Special Places to Stay) and others in Sawday’s extensive range.
All of these are available from Amazon, any half decent bookshop or the library. But really, there are so many guides you are bound to find one to suite you.
But, without the books, an hour or so on Google is dead easy as well.
Gîtes or Guest Houses
These are closest to our ‘Bed-and-breakfast’ arrangements. In short, you will be living with a French family. Many of the sites are quite rural and great for a cheap, in the country, stop over.
Of course language may be a small problem but, in the main, your host or hostess should be friendly enough and it's part of the fun.
www.gites-de-france.fr/
Camping
France has more than 9,000 fully equipped campsites.
As it’s France, these too are officially graded from 0 to four stars.
Some of the sites will be owned by the local municipality, whilst others run as fully private affairs.
As ever, the standards vary but the stars should give you a pretty good clue. The very largest ones will be similar to hotels without rooms, having large restaurants, pools, games rooms and assorted leisure activities.
There are then over 2,000 farm campsites. Again, these will, on the whole be similar to UK farm camp sites, ranging from very basic and cheap to quite smart (nearly permanent sites) at a higher cost.
Camping off-site is permitted with the clear permission of the landowner, but prohibited on beaches, roadsides or at non-designated sites.
www.campingfrance.com/
Tourist offices
As France takes a pride in itself and each town vies with the other to encourage tourists, an excellent network of tourist offices has sprung up.
No self respecting French area, town or large village is without its Tourist office. These people will help you, without a doubt.
Simply Google ‘French Tourist Office’ and a thousand sites will appear.
Have fun!
However, it is perhaps the broad scope of choice that, maybe, causes so much confusion? Give a bloke a choice over two or more sorts of oil and he goes into a flat spin. Hotels are no different; they just need a little explanation.
France loves classifying things and is proud of its heritage, both on a national and local level. Stars, rosettes, little chimneys and points are fluttered around like confetti. But it really is quite simple. So, with a lot of help from lots of sites on the internet, let’s start at the beginning.
How many places to stay are there to choose from?
Leaving out campsites and ‘Bed and Breakfast’ type establishments (more about them later) there are over 18,300 hotels and other places to stay in France. That is over 50 for every day of the year. Any summary must therefore include a lot of generalisation.
What classes of hotel are there?
Most hotels in France are government rated. They are inspected and rated on their level of comfort, amenities and quality of service.
The hotels are approved and checked by official authorities, then classified into six categories:
(1) No star – these are the most basic
(2) One star
(3) Two star
(4) Three star
(5) Four star
(6) Four star L (for luxury) – These are the very smartest and the most expensive.
How much do they cost?
With so many hotels to choose from, any price structure will always be a guestimate at best.
Rather than get fixated on the pure cost per night (which is out of date after a year anyway) it is perhaps more useful to look at the price differences. Here's a rough indication based on 2007 prices.
Grand Luxury/Deluxe Hotel - Four star and Four star L
Average rate per night in Paris: 405€
Average rate per night in France: 300€
First Class Hotel -Three star
Average rate per night in Paris: 340€
Average rate per night in France: 180€
Very Comfortable Hotel – Two star
Average rate per night in Paris: 151€
Average rate per night in France: 78€
Comfortable Hotel – One star
Average rate per night in Paris: 84€
Average rate per night in France: 60€
Budget & Economy Hotel – no star
Average rate per night in Paris: 52€
Average rate per night in France: 28€
This gives a price difference of nearly 800 to one thousand percent from top to bottom.
Interestingly, perhaps, the swing around the middle band, Budget to Very Comfortable, is nearly 300%.
However, do not get too hung up on the stars and prices, it is not an absolute science after all. If you are going to always stay in the best, you won't really care looking down and if you are on a tight budget (as many are) then you will only be looking at the lower range.
But, even at the lower end do please not be too disappointed or dismissive of alternatives. Budget hotels are very cheap - that's a certainty. But, maybe, for shared room occupation, it’s possible to find a good mid-range hotel at not too an exorbitant a price, even for just a few nights. That is exactly what my parents taught me, when touring holidays of Europe were not quite as popular as they are now.
What are the hidden charges and occupancy terms?
In reality, it’s all little different to the UK.
Prices, which are displayed at the hotel entrance and in the bedrooms, must include taxes and service.
Hotel rates themselves are unregulated. Usually there is an extra charge for breakfast and a surcharge can be added for an extra bed and for any reasonably secure car parking space.
In general rooms provide double or twin beds.
If you have pre-booked rooms, most hotels, big and small, will expect you to be at the reception to check-in by about 19:00. If you are going to be late it is sensible (not least good manners) to phone ahead and reconfirm both your booking and likely time of arrival. If it’s very late you need to find out how to get in, after all. I have done this several times, particularly with small hotels. More often than not, the owner will even put some food out for you.
Associations of privately owned hotels
Associations of privately owned hotels in France group together distinctive and privately owned hotels.
The range covers all categories.
From the top (4L to 3 star) These would include, chateau-hotels, and larger private houses. Typical associations would be Relais & Chateaux and Chateaux et Hotels de France.
The more mid-range priced, Relais du Silence (2 to 4 star country hotels)
The very affordable Logis de France hotels-restaurants (3 to 1-star) present all over France.
Booking methods vary. Whilst many rely on direct booking methods, where you speak to (or email / fax) the hotel itself, some use a central booking facility, like that employed by the Logis de France Association. To be honest, I find Logis' central booking facility a bit hit and miss. It's often easier to speak to the hotel directly.
Many of the hotels will have a working knowledge of English, or will find someone who can speak to you. Over the years I have spoken to student cleaning ladies and a local doctor, who just happened to be in the bar.
One thing to have in mind though. Being, in the main, privately, owned there is often no 24/7 service. Arrive late and you could well be looking at a locked door, with the proprietor snoring away.
Contact details:
Relais & Chateaux http://www.relaischateaux.com/page.php3?lang=en
Chateaux et Hotels de France http://www.chateauxhotels.com/recherche/loisirs.php?langue=EN
Relais du Silence http://www.relaisdusilence.com/EN/
Logis de France http://www.logis-de-france.fr/uk/index.htm
Hotel Chains
There are dozens of hotel chains in France.
These group standardized hotels, into very nearly homogonous places, very similar to each other and to their peers. It’s easy to say, if you have seen one Novotel you have seen all Novotels. Similarly, if you have seen one Formule 1 or Etap hotel, you might well have seen them all.
The range covers all categories, from upscale to mid-range like Accor Group (Sofitel, Novotel, Libertel, Mercure & Ibis) or Concorde Hotels, to more economical hotels near major cities (Hotel Formule 1, Etap Hotel, Balladins, Bonsaï, Première Classe).
One possible advantage of these chain hotels is that the reception is usually open 24/7.
Sometimes the very cheap chain hotels can be well away from the city or town centres, maybe on light industrial estates on the outskirts. What you will save on price, you may lose on environment or basic service.
You can get a pretty god idea where any hotel is situated by using a map search, like ViaMichelin, Mapsource, Multimap, Googlemap and Googlearth. In short, if that looks like a railway siding and motorway or a cow filled field, it probably is.
Hotel chains usually have central reservations facilities.
Contact details:
Accor Group http://www.accor.com/gb/index.asp
Etap http://www.etaphotel.com/gb/home/index.shtml
Novotel http://www.novotel.com/novotel/index.html
Sofitel http://www.sofitel.com/gb/home/index.shtml
Libertel http://www.hotels-libertel.com/
Mercure http://www.mercure.com/gb/home/index.shtml
Ibis http://www.ibishotel.com/gb/home/index.shtml
Concorde hotels http://www.concorde-hotels.com/en/
Balladins http://www.balladins.com/uk/?ref=
Bonsaï http://www.bonsai-hotels.fr/index_en.php
Première Classe http://www.premiereclasse.com/en/default.aspx
Formule 1 http http://www.hotelformule1.com/formule1/index.html
Where to stay?
The easy answer is: Wherever you fancy. It’s your holiday, after all.
By all means search out hints and tips. But, what suites one person may not please another. Above all, hotels and restaurants change. What was good 10 years ago may now be duff and visa-versa. A large part of the fun is not to be lazy or keeping playing safe. Do your own planning. If you find yourself in a bad hotel, it’s only for one night….
France is a big country, roughly twice the size of England, but with so many hotels, guest houses and camp sites, it should be easy to find one. However, a bit of help never gores amiss.
Probably the best search engine is the Michelin (the tyre people) ‘ViaMichelin’ website. This one site does everything.
It will list hotels and restaurants, many of them from the ones suggested above, in and around any place on a French map. Stick a pin in and up will come a hotel within a few miles, that I promise you. You can list the hotels, sorting by price and a number of other criteria.
It will plot your routes for you, pricing every inch of you motorised progress.
Its maps are excellent, matching as they do Michelin’s own maps of France. Play around with the site, dreaming up holidays. If nothing else it will give you a feeling for the huge rang of hotels and hotels that are out there.
You can even set up your own personal folders, saving possible hotels for each trip and overnight stay, then keep them up-to-date on your return.
All this is done through, ‘My ViaMichelin’ on the same site.
Being web based its accessible from any pc or internet café and its scope not just limited to France, alone.
I cannot recommend it any higher.
http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/int/tpl/hme/MaHomePage.htm
What more?
Guide books
The world is littered with guide books and many dedicate themselves to France.
Amongst the best and most popular are:
Michelin Red Guide: France (Michelin Red Hotel & Restaurant Guides)
Back this up with Michelin’s Green Guide to France (to the cultural / scenic bits) with its suggested tours and good maps, everything is near enough done for you.
1000 Charming Hotels and Guesthouses in France (Michelin Guides)
French Bed and Breakfast (Alastair Sawday's Special Places to Stay) and others in Sawday’s extensive range.
All of these are available from Amazon, any half decent bookshop or the library. But really, there are so many guides you are bound to find one to suite you.
But, without the books, an hour or so on Google is dead easy as well.
Gîtes or Guest Houses
These are closest to our ‘Bed-and-breakfast’ arrangements. In short, you will be living with a French family. Many of the sites are quite rural and great for a cheap, in the country, stop over.
Of course language may be a small problem but, in the main, your host or hostess should be friendly enough and it's part of the fun.
www.gites-de-france.fr/
Camping
France has more than 9,000 fully equipped campsites.
As it’s France, these too are officially graded from 0 to four stars.
Some of the sites will be owned by the local municipality, whilst others run as fully private affairs.
As ever, the standards vary but the stars should give you a pretty good clue. The very largest ones will be similar to hotels without rooms, having large restaurants, pools, games rooms and assorted leisure activities.
There are then over 2,000 farm campsites. Again, these will, on the whole be similar to UK farm camp sites, ranging from very basic and cheap to quite smart (nearly permanent sites) at a higher cost.
Camping off-site is permitted with the clear permission of the landowner, but prohibited on beaches, roadsides or at non-designated sites.
www.campingfrance.com/
Tourist offices
As France takes a pride in itself and each town vies with the other to encourage tourists, an excellent network of tourist offices has sprung up.
No self respecting French area, town or large village is without its Tourist office. These people will help you, without a doubt.
Simply Google ‘French Tourist Office’ and a thousand sites will appear.
Have fun!
