Despite living in France for a year, and visiting on numerous occasions I'd never actually been to Paris before. So for a first visit I really wanted the hotel to live up to the promise of the city - and the Hotel Saint Paul Rive Gauche certainly did that.
Right from the welcome at reception we knew things would be relaxed here. The hotel cat, Sputnik, lounging on the reception desk summed up the feel. If anything my only gripe came at this point, and it was nothing to do with the cat (who was fantastic, though I do recognise not everyone would be so happy to see a moggy at reception), but rather that the receptionist spoke to us in English when I was speaking in French. Really a very minor complaint when her English was so good, and it's a common trait in the big French cities and not really worth getting worked up about.
Staying on the third floor we had a nicely sized room with a large and comfortable bed (it fitted me at 6'3" at any rate) and a clean and modern recently refitted bathroom with a shower over the bath. This was a double 'superior' room at about £150 a night, I've heard the standard rooms can be a little small, but not staying in one I can't really comment. Virtually floor to ceiling windows meant that even with the buildings opposite being as high in a narrow-ish road there was plenty of light coming in.
We weren't planning on spending too much time in the room, but it was nice to know that if we had to we'd be perfectly happy to hang about here.
I can't comment on the breakfast offered by the hotel as we tended to head out early and grab a coffee in a local cafe...
The location of the hotel is superb, on the border line between St Germain and the Rive Gauche. 10-15 minutes walk from Notre Dame (and the excellent Shakespeare & Co), a shorter distance from the Luxembourg Gardens, a choice of metro stations, and with a wealth of great restaurants in the vicinity (most notably Polidor - two doors down from the hotel). Even the Eiffel Tower was only 15 minutes or so away by bike (there's a Velib station on Rue Vaugirard very near the hotel).
I did have a worry with the hotel that there were a couple of bars on the street, but perhaps my British experience of these things took me over into paranoia as even with the window open during the night we weren't disturbed at all.
This hotel just felt so comfortable and relaxed - we're already planning a return to Paris next year, and I already know where I want to stay.
Sorbonne, Notre Dame and the Luxembourg gardens, the hotel Saint-Paul is a comfortable XVIIth century residence where Franciscan monks once lived...Its oak beams and sto...
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