*♥* Sleep Like A Baby, Eat Like A Pig! *♥* (Mercure Rouen Centre Cathedrale Hotel (Rouen, France))

Member Name: malibu_jenny

Product:	Mercure Rouen Centre Cathedrale Hotel (Rouen, France)
Date:	05/04/09 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great location and comfy bed.

Disadvantages: Crappy shower gel.

It was just after midday when we arrived in Rouen and the sun was hitting the winding medieval streets at an angle. The enormous Cathedral caught us for a lazy 15 minutes of staring and we found our hotel without any drama. The whole weekend had a relaxed tone; the wheeled suitcase rattled on the cobbles and somewhere nearby a band played amongst the shoppers.

The Mercure Rouen Cathedrale has a huge sign outside and a battered red carpet that made me feel like a Hollywood Star. We rolled in to an empty lobby with the breeze behind us and the receptionist understood my French. And then my English when I didn't understand his French. We got into the mirrored lift and headed to the third floor. The décor is bland but plush in a faded way and they have the chain hotel doors with key cards and brass handles.

I was really pleased with the room; a comfy queensize bed and a floor to ceiling window with net curtains. The angle of the wall behind the bed and the bed itself was a little strange, cutting diagonally through the room to allow for a bathroom behind but it suited the position of the television and we flopped straight onto it. There were those little touches that made it just right, the ashtray with the no smoking sign in it and the weird cardboard backdrop on the wall, which pretended to be a shelf from a boring library. The Boyfriend sniggered at this 'bedtime reading' and flipped the TV on to look for English channels.

I checked out the bathroom, brushing my hair in the large mirror and trying to open the strange Olive Oil shower gel to smell it. It had one of those peculiar doors that looked like it belonged on the back of a council house with frosted security glass, a big shower head and a cramped toilet. There was nothing bad about it, it was clean and pleasant and had those lights round the mirror causing another 'Celebrity' moment.

"I'm washed and ready" I said appearing in the doorway. The Boyfriend smiled a relaxed smile which lacked acknowledgement and turned back to the TV. Too chilled out to nag, I sauntered across to the window and leaned out over the street. It was quiet and pleasant in the Saturday afternoon air and the Cathedral spires could just be seen against the blue sky. Eventually we wandered out to visit Rouen, to buy make-up in a busy Sephora, cross the bridges over the Seine and find the Joan of Arc memorial at dusk.

When we returned, full of pizza and pudding, the streets were dark and the night was incredibly cold. Despite my huggy boots and my parka, I was a block of ice with my hands in The Boyfriend's pockets vying for space with his phone. Luckily, the hotel was warm and we pushed the air conditioning to the hottest and highest setting. I found a red fleece blanket in the wardrobe and we dragged it over the duvet, settling down in front of a film. The English channels that had been missing in the previous hotel were welcome now and I drifted off to a good nights sleep in front of a film.

We got up in a hurry the following morning, stuffing the suitcase and showering quickly so that we could make our train. The shower was a bit low on pressure, but the hot water made up for it. The hairdryer in the bathroom was so good with its settings and cool button that I made a mental note to buy one like it when I got home. But that's another review.

Seeing the 15Euro price tag on the buffet breakfast the previous night, we'd originally planned to give it a miss. Now, we took into account that all the cafes appeared closed, the prices were high everywhere and to say we were in a bit of a rush was an understatement. The hotel offers two other kinds of breakfast, one room service at 12Euro (very limited) and one 'to go' with a coffee and a croissant for a shockingly 8Euro. We calculated that we had an hour to ram down our fifteen euros worth each and got started on the buffet.

They had a good spread, which was only really missing fresh fruit. The centrepiece was an egg boiler where you lower your eggs into the boiling water with cute little coloured ladles. I like to have my egg just so and we timed it on The Boyfriend's phone as we wandered round loading our plates. All that fresh air had done us good the day before and the waitresses were staring at us while we shovelled down the food. We reasoned that if we ate enough, we wouldn't need to eat until the ferry that evening.

Between the two of us, we ate:

4 Soft Boiled Eggs
3 Pieces of Toast as Soldiers
1 Croissant
4 Pain Au Chocolate
1 Bowl Of Muesli
1 Bowl Of Cornflakes
1 Danish Pastry
2 Bowls of Fruit Salad
Bacon and Sausages
1 Yoghurt
2 Glasses of Orange Juice
2 Glasses of Tropicana Smoothie
4 Cups of Tea
8 Cups of Coffee

Check out was as uneventful as check-in and we paced the short walk through the park to the station just in time to catch our train to Le Havre. Overall, this is a nice quiet hotel for a nice quiet weekend. It's clean, it's quiet, it's comfortable and it doesn't smell. It's so well located in the mediaeval centre next to the cathedral and all the shops and restaurants that you couldn't wish for better. The one and only thing wrong with it was the disgusting olive oil shower gel; once we got it open we wished we hadn't. (Unfortunately for The Boyfriend, he was the one who opened it while I pulled my jumper over my face from a dry distance.)

I'd recommend this hotel for a quiet sightseeing or shopping break in the heart of Normandy. It's peaceful and friendly at a good price. We paid £70.00 for the night, which weighed in a good deal cheaper than most of the surrounding hotels and was real value for Valentines Day.

Summary: Easy going and perfect for a relaxing weekend.