When booking my visit to Paris back in 2007, I wasn't interested in review sites as I am now. I simply booked it based on the price and how it sounded whilst browsing the choice of hotels through Thomson Holidays. These days choosing a hotel for my holiday is a pain staking process of comparing prices carefully against reviews, and debating over which one sounds best! However I had booked this 3* hotel as it was in a good location and it looked nice enough on the pictures, it wasn't badly priced too compared to similar hotels in Paris.

The Hotel's Location

Europe Hotel is in an ideal location on a busy street. It's situated only a 10-15 minute walk away from the Effiel Tower, which was amusing on our first day as we stood with a map wondering where the busy street we were standing in was located in proximity to the Tower... only to look up and see it just peeking over the roof tops in front of us! The hotel is also near a good Metro station (La Motte Picquet Grenelle) which is only 3 minutes away and will get you all over Paris. There are a few restaurants nearby, and a large shop across the road which was handy for snacks and drinks. The raised Metro line is opposite the hotel, and a market was set up underneath it on the Wednesday which was nice was a browse. On the corner just down the street from the hotel was a restaurant with a small stand next to it where a friendly man served crepes. We ended up going here a few times and he got to know us, often saying 'let me guess! 1 Nutella, 1 Lemon and Sugar yes?' I recommend buying crepes from here, very delicious.

Reception

We arrived at the hotel by using an airport shuttle company, and the outside of the hotel gave off a great impression. It didn't take us long to get checked in, the reception area was very small, but it had some comfortable chairs, leaflets, and a small bar tucked away in the corner. There was always someone on reception ready to help, and each morning there was plenty of newspapers about to read from across the world. The lift in the hotel is extremely small, we just managed to get me and 2 pieces of luggage in it, my boyfriend had to take the stairs. This wasn't a problem for us as we were only 2 floors up so didn't mind taking the stairs for the rest of our stay.

The Double Room

The double room we had was very small, the smallest hotel room I have ever stayed in. It was however clean, and there was a wardrobe with a safe and room for our clothes. We couldn't find anywhere to keep our luggage so this ended up being stored up against the window, giving us just enough room to move about. There was a small desk and a minibar. The minibar itself wasn't as expensive as I've seen in other hotels, but with a shop being just across the road we didn't really need to use it. There was a small flat screen TV on the wall above the desk, the choice of channels were poor, mostly French and the only English channel being BBC News 24. Of course you aren't in Paris to watch TV, but this was slightly annoying when we were taking a breather from walking everywhere.

The desk had 2 clean glasses on, but there was no kettle or tea/coffee. This was very disappointing, both being keen tea/coffee drinkers all we sometimes wanted was a simple cup of coffee! The room had aircon however this wasn't needed when we stayed here as it wasn't particularly warm.

The bed wasn't the most comfortable I've slept on and the sheets and blankets provided seemed a bit old. The bed was made up though each day and it was clean, can't complain about that. There were also spare pillows and blankets in the wardrobe should they be needed. The wardrobe was quite spacious, and there was a safe which was free to use on the bottom.

The bathroom was tiny, it only just managed to fit in the toilet, shower and sink. The shower itself was very small and once the curtain was pulled round you did feel very cramped. It was adequate enough for me but my 6ft 4 boyfriend certainly struggled, he had to duck his head! There was some basic toiletries and fresh towels were provided every day with room service. There is a hairdryer on the wall, but I used my own travel hairdryer.

"Keep the noise down!"

The walls in this hotel are paper thin. Everytime someone flushed a toilet in this building you could hear it, if someone was talking in the room next door, you could hear it all. Luckily on our first day the people next door were leaving, and then we didn't have any neighbours until our last day when a few young American girls were being high pitched, excited, and laughing at the French TV channels. This was irritating, but thankfully the jet lag soon caught up to them as it went quiet after a while. If you like your peace and quiet, I can't recommend this hotel for you!

Our room was at the back of the hotel, facing another building, and you could just about see the tiny courtyard below. However looking up you could see distant Parisian roofs which was nice, and to be honest we weren't actually expecting a great view anyway from this hotel

Breakfast time

Breakfast was served in the basement, you should check whether the cost is included in your room price or not. It was included in our booking, and it was good to start off your day. It had the usual crossiants, bread, spreads, cereals, yogurts, juice and tea/coffee, but you won't find any hot food here. We used to go down towards the end of breakfast time, and the coffee was often luke warm. However it did the job and filled me up ready for a day of exploring Paris.

Time to go home...

Check out was a smooth and easy process. We were waiting for our airport shuttle in the lobby, and the receptionist asked who we were with when she noticed we'd been waiting a while. She then rang the company and told us they were on our way, this was a nice touch as we didn't ask her to do this.

Overall this is a good basic hotel in Paris. The rooms are small, but I've heard lots of hotels in Paris are the same. It serves a decent breakfast and the location is the best as it's close to shops, the Eiffel Tower and a good Metro station.