Good stay (Novotel Paris Gare Montparnasse (Paris, France))

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Product:	Novotel Paris Gare Montparnasse (Paris, France)
Date:	14/05/09 (85 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: nice, clean , child-friendly, politeand helpful staff

Disadvantages: very small in comparison to the benefits

This is an almost new three star hotel that has been opened exactly three years ago. It is situated in at 17 rue du Cotentin, Montparnasse (75015 Paris) , and is roughly about four minutes walk from the underground station (there is an outlet from the station that opens right into the hotel's car-park). One could also walk along the street level for 5-6 mins and then go in through the main entrance to the metro(level 6 line I think) ... we found the passageway a bit deserted after 9pm., though very safe.
As far as my memory goes there were stations for three different metro lines quite nearby.. Pasteur station , Montparnasse Bienvenue, while right behind the back door of the hotel you get the train to Versailles.

The Hotel was easy to locate as it had the typical blue signboard with the yellow feather logo with Novotel written on it.

All the main tourist attractions are located nearby and one can just stroll down to the Galleries Lafayette and the Eiffel tower(about 15 mins) .
. In the area you will find brasseries,cafes, pizza-places and supermarket all within 5mins walking distance.

In my opinion the hotel is situated in the quieter parts of the city and thankfully there was no hustle bustle or nighttime merriment sounds ensuing from the roads at all.



First impression: **

There was nothing noteworthy about the exterior of the hotel just a massive whitewashed concrete structure with the typical blue tinted glass facade . The front lobby looked just as we had seen in the photos (no trick photography there) it was furnished in reds and silvers/steel and had huge glass windows all along the side towards the road, so it looked really bright and modern in a classy sort of way. There was a nice feel to it without being too posh or glassy .

Like I have said the registration went very smoothly. The staff were friendly and knew fluent English and offered to help on more than one occasion.
My little one was just one and a half years old then and they were kind enough to give her a medium sized plush reindeer with the badge of Hotel Novotel on it while we were checking in and were very friendly to her, which was a small gesture by which they really won us over. The concierge was very helpful.
I was hoping the rooms would also be as good as the lobby but I wasn't expecting much anyway.




The Rooms: **


Ahh well that's what we had come for in the first place and a staff showed us which lift would take us to our room located in the third floor. Again I have to say I was impressed by the tidiness all around. There were huge potted plants and a few large silver framed mirrors strategically placed in the corridors in a way to catch the maximum light and brighten the place. I had a deep urge to start snapping the shutter of my camera like a Japanese tourist but I let it pass as I didn't want to appear over-enthusiastic in front of the bell-boy(he helped us with the luggage was we had a kid in tow)

The standard room we were shown into was minimalist in décor and had a sterile cool look to it and it suited my taste very well. I am not sure how to put this but it looked very clean and practical and had a very light colour on the walls(magnolia perhaps). In the area you will find brasseries, pizza, supermarket (5 minutes away).


Immediately on entering was a small wash-closet/loo with a single basin in it.

The bathroom which was much spacious was on the far side of the room and had a bathtub with screen and another basin and shower etc. I found that the shower screen was broken which was a tad of a nuisance as I didn't have the energy to have a bath after a day of sightseeing and my little one loves to splash about during her bath. The usual lot of complimentary shower gels , soaps and moisturisers were provided which were of expected quality.

I have a weakness for huge fluffy white towels and to my delight they had provided the bathrooms with two whole bales of the same and these were fluffier than I had expected, not that I had much chance to luxuriate in them for long.

We had requested for a double bed room with a separate bed for a child and the sofa-bed provided for out little one was very comfortable and several soft square pillows and a throw had been provided. ( when we came back in the evening we found that the futon had already been turned down for our little one).

There were the usual tea/coffee/milk-sachet and complimentary biscuit pack, safe deposite box(ours had a broken lock and anyway we didn't intend to keep any valuables there), a televison with few free French channels but you could pay and watch from a set of English movies (there were some kids movies too on this list), hairdryer and when asked for they even provided us with a small microwave oven to warm our little ones bottle up... they were child friendly to the utmost in my opinion , considering how much of a hassle it is at the metro stations with a pram , this surely is a plus point for the hotel. There was a mini-bar in one corner with a good selection to pick from.

The room had air-conditioning which was much needed when we stayed there in mid-July and the smoke alarm in the ceiling was a reassuring sight even though the room was a non-smoking one.





The café and bar :**

We had breakfast in the hotels restaurant L'instant Nomade the first day and though the continental breakfast was good but it cost 16 euro per adult while for the kids it is free (provided one has at least one adult paid breakfast) .The breakfast room has large windows letting in a lot of air and sunshine. I have to stress here though that the business class guests ( of which there are many) get a much better treatment than the ones on vacation and with family (treated as second class guests for some reason).


We decided not to have any more breakfast in the restaurant serving as the french patisseries nearby have delicious fresh baked options anyway and the café do serve yummy tea/coffee.
There is a small restaurant on the premises serving French cuisine. We did not dine in the hotel restaurant, but we did frequent the bar area called L' Instant Parantheses
and were pleased with the drink selection as well as the late-night appetizer/tapas menu.
They serve a variety of drinks as most hotel bars do but, they do make money out of this and the drinks are quite pricey. A pint of lager came in at 10 Euros and simple juice at a whopping 5 Euros, so in my opinion its best to take you custom elsewhere , sticking to plain natural water with your food while you are here.




Additional information:**

You could return to the hotel at anytime you like but if you do so after 12am , then we were told that you must ring the bell at the backdoor and a special security would let you in... we did not have the opportunity to make use of this option but in my opinion this adds to the security of the guests staying at the place.

There is a room service option at anytime of the day. They provide facilities like baby-sitting, laundry and dry-cleaning, internet access, gym at free of cost for guests staying in the hotel, café and some more amenities.

There is an attached secure paid car-park at the back for the customers.

The bus-stop for the Air-France shuttle-bus is around the corner should you wish to go to the airport or you could hire a taxi through the concierge too.

This hotel has 2 suites , 6 wheelchair accessible rooms, and 170 non-smoking( this is in accordance with the smoking ban that the French government has put into action some time last year) rooms and a few conference rooms. Each room accommodates a maximum of two adults and two kids and if you want you can make pre-arrangements for taking pets if you wanted to(I didn't find any doggy smell/hair in the room so I can only assume that there are separate rooms for such guests).

There is facility for late check-out if you wanted to.


Price= Roughly around 180 Euros -250 Euros per night . We had booked the room as a eurostar package and I am not sure what the break down was , there are several promotions (City Breaks, Early Booking) which apply to certain Novotel hotels but there is the policy of no change, no cancellation promotion though you do end up with great bargain rates.



Overall opinion:**

There I have said it , I was quite impressed by the hotel and its friendly staff - I went in there like a blank stale so I guess I liked it a lot . My other half used the superspeed wifi connection to send some urgent messeges to office colleagues .What did matter for me was that the hotel was suitable for me to stay for three nights with a small child and they did everything to make my stay comfortable. Location wise it is pretty good and in a residential area, not much of a nightlife around so if you have gone exclusively for that, this hotel wouldn't suit you. We took a lot of metro to travel and the location of the hotel was a point of highlight in our trip. I thought that the rooms were bright and airy , modern , clean and reasonably priced .A place you'd definitely look forward to coming back to after a long day of sightseeing.
I would definitely recommend it to family and friends , specially if you have kids with you. If we were to go to Paris again , we would consider staying at this hotel again.

Summary: Lovely place to saty and enjoy