Good Spots In Paris

As I promised : here's a little post about how much a hotel may cost you if you plan a trip to Paris You'll see the cheapest ones (and were you should avoid going anyway), the average ones (which are usually good spots, where you'll have a good quality for the price you pay), and of course a quick tour of the "upper class" hotels without which Paris would not be Paris ;) !

The cheapest

Before I really starts lets make it clear : by "the cheapest" I mean "the cheapest hotels", you can find places where to sleep for fewer bucks, but those are no more hotels but hostels ("backpackers" for our Australian friends ).

In France the most famous brand in the "cheapest hostel" industry is "Formule 1". As it is a famous brand you're sure it's cheap but clean. Only problem : they are "cheap" oriented, and because of the real-estate average price in Paris they have no hotels within the city so you'll have to be around Paris, not in it (no big deal, there are still public transports and others easy ways of reaching the center of the town). So, the price for this : it starts between 38€ ($53) and 48€ ($68) for a night. I checked other cheap hotels, they are in the same range of price (but some are in the inner-city)

To sum it up : A cheap night is worse a little more than 42€ (around $60)

The average

If you plan to go to Paris with your beloved one you might want a bit more than "the cheapest decent hotel in Paris", so let's have a look at what's more average I know two major brands for "average" hotels : Ibis, and Mercure (in fact those used to be two different brands but now that's the same big firm...well we don't care, the brands are still here!).

What you need to know is that "Mercure" is upper class then "Ibis". Knowing this you won't be to much surprised when I tell you that you can find Mercure hotels in the very center of Paris, but no Ibis ones (make no mistake : you can find Ibis hotels in Paris, not like Formule1, but they are not located in the very center of it, that's all). As I told you those are average hotels (meaning two and three stars) so they're more expensive than the "cheapest hotels" we just saw earlier (which are barely one star) : count between 60€ ($89) and 90€ ($127) for Ibis, and between 110€ ($155) and 200€ ($283) for Mercure. As a matter of localisation : Mercure can be found everywhere (even in the very center as I told you), and Ibis are everywhere but in the center. Both are usually in cool spots you'd like to hang out

To sum it up : An average hotel night is worse 75€ ($106) for a two stars hotel or 150€ ($212) for a three stars one.

The upper class

And now : the upper class ! But let me warn you already. I'll be very brief (and incomplete) on this topic for two reasons :

• I don't know a lot about those hotels (I'm not that rich :p )
• It may be a good idea for a future complete post

So, let's just talk about a couple of "upper class" hotels

First the Crillon. Very nice hotel, 770€ ($1090) for a night. To give you an idea of the spirit of this hotel let me tell you that for events such as the return in France of the national soccer team (world champion in 98 :p ) the private party takes place there

Then the Georges V, near the Champs Elysés, starting at 730€ for a night.

One I can't skip : "Le Bristol" starting at 750€ for a night

The famous Plaza Athénée, even if they did not dare putting the price on their website (and I did not dare calling to ask )

And now, even if there are many more of them (after all : Paris needs room to supply shelter to the celebrity herd that rush into the town from time to time) I'll stop here. Maybe there'll be more in a coming post ^_^ !

Today was a day off. It's a national holiday in France to commemorate the Ascension of Jesus. Lucky us : today was also one of the warmest day of the last pasts weeks so it was VERY pleasant to hang out in the town (and I sure did !). That was the good part of this post For the sad one : I will not blog during the coming days.

Don't worry, "the coming days" means until Monday only ! So no reason to freak out. It won't change you a lot anyway as I barely post more than once a week lol. In fact the only thing that changes is this very post Usually, instead of this pathetic little post of apology, you should have had a normal post (i.e. longer, with facts and good tips in it). Oh by the way, I apologized about not posting anything interesting instead of this little text but I did not tell you why I haven't the time to post a real thing here. Let's do that :

As we (me and my friends) knew ages ago that this day was holiday we planned a lot of things to do. In fact we planned so many things that I'll have less free time than when I work lol ! By the way I should go to bed now because we have a 48h non-stop planing starting tomorrow, I'd better be in good shape lol.

Once again sorry for this very little thing (at least you'd have learn that the Ascension of Jesus is a day off in France )

Just a little joke because I'm in the mood for it as I've been reading quite a lot of french bashing lately and found this joke in the middle of it which I, surprisingly, found amusing, so here it goes (and I hope it will bring at least a smile in your day ^^ ) :

Sitting together on a train, traveling through the Swiss Alps, are a French man, an American man, an old Greek woman and a young blonde beautiful Swiss girl. The train goes into a dark tunnel and a few seconds later there is the sound of a loud slap. When the train emerges from the tunnel, the Frenchman has a bright red hand print on his cheek. No one speaks. The old Greek woman thinks: The Frenchman must have groped the blonde in the dark, and she slapped his cheek. The blonde Swiss girl thinks: That Frenchman must have tried to grope me in the dark, but missed and fondled the old lady and she slapped his cheek. The Frenchman thinks: The American must have groped the blonde in the dark. She tried to slap him but missed and got me instead. The American thinks: I can't wait for another tunnel, so I can slap that Frenchman again !