Jin Y.
Yelp
We were wowed and taken by the trip advisor reviews. I could see how if I had a family and I was looking for a family friendly environment, I'd like this place. We were on our honeymoon and we stayed for an entire week in this hotel and there were great things about it, some good things about it, and some bad things about it.
Great things first:
1) They are indeed across the street from Vandermeersch, a boulangerie known for their kugelhopf (not very French you say? I said that too, actually, while stuffing my face with delicious gooey, sugary, stretchy, ball of heavenly delight... not on the street in public though. I have manners).
2) The Port Doree metro stop is RIGHT OUTSIDE the hotel. Seriously awesome for not having to walk a block or two for a metro stop.
3) The person at the desk always spoke English, if that is important to some of you, especially if you didn't plan your trip that well and have no idea what to do.
4) The park across the street (Bois de Vincennes) is amazing to jog around and chillax in (but if you had the choice of spending a day here, or in front of the Eiffel Tower, which would you choose?) and is really huge and is reminiscent of Central Park, but with less people.
Good things:
1) The room, though dormlike, and the smallest of all the rooms we stayed in Europe (We went to Paris, San Sebastian, Barcelona), had a double bed, a tv, internet on the second floor if you didn't bring your own computer, your own bathroom with shower, a closet. The ice machine exists, just in the basement of the hotel, where the soda machine is. Wish they had a fridge in all the rooms to keep some of the delicious things we bought more fresh while we were staying there.
Bad:
These things aren't entirely the fault of the hotel.
1) It's hella far from the city. This might be okay for those who have already been to Paris before and are okay staying away from the tourists and the sightseeing places but if you are there for the first time and you have to take the metro into the heart of the city every day, it takes a good twenty - forty minutes, depending on where you want to go. The worst thing is coming back home, changing, and wanting to go out again. There were many times we wanted to go out and experience the nightlife but the thought of having to come back home first to shower, change, and go out again on the metro wasn't enticing enough, especially knowing that the metro stops running at midnight. We had to weigh whether or not it was worth taking a cab back home, which would cost us anywhere from 18-30 dollars, depending on where we were.
2) A family of 2 or 3 children were staying upstairs or next to us (unsure of where exactly as we only had the shrill sound of muffled kids screaming, waking us up at the crack ass of dawn to judge their location) for a couple of days. Those rooms are not sound proof, let's just say that. Obviously, this just depends on who stays on your floor when you're there and it's hard to control maniacally screaming kids in any hotel so that's not really their fault but anyway, just know the rooms are not sound proof.
3) Lastly, if you want to eat dinner after 10pm in this area, good luck. The only place that serves dinner that late is Au Metro, and their food is not the best (although apparently their mussels are okay).
The takeaway:
Good place to stay because it's affordable and if it's not your first time in Paris and you want to avoid all the claustrophobic tourist spots, this might be your spot, especially if you don't mind taking the metro in and out of the city, or you don't have an aggressive or packed schedule where you have to return to your hotel to get something or to change, etc.
If you're on your honeymoon, or it's your first time in Paris and you want to see all the sights and you still want to enjoy your nights out on the town and be relatively close so you can come home to relax before going out again, this is not your spot.