Des Grandes Ecoles Hotel

My family stayed in a quad for four nights here. In a nutshell it provided a great location; good, friendly service; and a very clean room. We definitely would stay here again!

Interesting to read about other negative experiences with Reception at the hotel. While our interactions were unfailingly polite, there was an incident that did give me pause. We had reserved a room at 120 euros in one of the other buildings, not the one with the office. We were confirmed and had confirmation in hand. We showed up well before check-in time, showed the woman at the desk the confirmation--no problem, but of course the room was not ready yet, so we left our bags. She told us to come back in an hour. When we came back, she said the room was "just about ready" and offered us a seat. Then two American couples came in. They had just been shown their rooms and, with the exception of one gentleman in the group, they were not satisfied with them. It was quite embarrassing to listen to them and their complaints--no elevator, room too small, etc. I gathered that they had never stayed at a small, two-star European hotel before and were expecting something much more grand. They threw such a hissy fit that we suspect the woman at the desk gave one of the couples our room just to shut them up and get rid of them, for we were then told that our room--which was supposed to be ready in ten minutes--wouldn't be ready for another hour. When we came back, we were assigned to a room just off the office, which was less expensive than the room we had reserved. Since we were only going to be there for two nights and did not plan on spending much time at the hotel, we really didn't have the heart to engage in a tussle with the desk clerk. So we took the cheaper, less desirable room and made the most of it by drinking wine in the garden each night. Reading the previous posts reinforces my suspicions regarding the squeaky wheels who were oiled with our room, however! The proprietress, Mme. le Floch, was absolutely charming and there are things that make this hotel very special for its price, but I think it may have become a victim of its popularity.

We have just returned from five days in Paris, in this charming quiet hotel. Everything was perfect - our room was excellent, the view to the garden was very nice (magnolias were flowering), the beds were very good and, even in the middle of the Quartier Latin, the place was very quiet. I never ever slept so well in a hotel! We hope to come back soon.

This hotel was everything that I expected...charming room, quiet location, friendly staff... a great little oasis after a long day of city site seeing. One night we dined at a little restaurant down the street named Le Volcan, which had good food at reasonable prices and a good selection of half bottles of wine (go left from the hotel and veer right at Cafe Descartes) Some day I hope to return when the weather is warmer so I can take full advantage of the courtyard and garden, which was beautiful even in February!

Charming place, excellent location, friendly but not pushy management, reasonably priced.

We absolutely loved this hotel! We made our first trip to Paris in July of 2003. After reading many guide books and interner reviews we booked this hotel for our 5 day stay. We were not disappointed.. it was a wonderful oasis! What a lovely setting! Our room was on the top floor of the garden building and we looked down into the garden. We loved the area it was in and the ease of walking to the Seine or down to the metro stop. The Place du contrascape area and Latin Quarter area was just what I imagined Paris to be! We would love to go back to Paris as it was truly magical and we absolutely would stay here again! PS shower was great and had glass doors .. unlike many of the hotels that I read about.. also the bathroom had a hairdryer too!

This is my favorite Hotel in Paris. The square just up the street with its little fountain is traffic free on Sundays and is were the locals hang out watching the world go by, you get a real flavour of Paris. its about a 10 minute walk to Notre Dame and about the same to the Sorbonne area. Just down the street is a metro station. We stayed for a week in July 2003, our room was small, but lovely, on the top floor of an old house, with an elevator so if stairs are an issue this building would be fine. The Courtyard was an Oasis of calm at the end of a very hot day of walking, the tables and umbrellas just what we needed, people just sat and drank wine and ate snacks they had purchased locally, recharging their batteries before heading out for the evening. Lots of very interesting and good resteraunts locally, we chose ones from Rick Steves Paris, which is where we found the hotel listing from. The breakfast was very fresh and typical of a real continental breakfast, the coffee and juice are delicious. I can't wait till I can go back again.

We spent a week in room 108 of the main bdg (where the front desk is located and breakfast is served). the room was very quiet - the window opened over the garden. The room was small, but not too small, that is we were very comfortable. The staff was very helpful, pleasant - unlike the description in some other reviews. We made our reservations early and confirmed the week before we arrived by email and everything went very smoothly. Great location - we would definitely stay here again.

Ever had the disagreeable experience of receiving a written confirmation of reservation from a hotel and then finding out on the day that you had been crossed off the register and had no room. Well, it happened to us (Oct 2003) at the Hotel des Grandes Écoles, and rather than admit their error, the management threw us out into the street with a torrent of abuse.Two months before, I reserved a large single room for myself, my wife, our 3-year old daughter and my wifes mother. Id told the staff that I wanted two rooms and they said that they would let me know if these became available. In the meantime, I booked the 4-bed room on my credit card and received written confirmation. A few days later, I called them back and the 2 x 2-bed rooms were now available. I asked the hotel whether they needed written confirmation of room change, and the gentleman on the desk said that it wasnt necessary.Now, assuming that hed forgot to pencil in the change, we should have had our original 4-bed room, but when we turned up on the night, they first claimed that they were full and when presented with their written confirmation, found that our name was indeed in their book, but that a mysterious line had been drawn through it.While we had to go elsewhere for the night, the desk clerk was a model of politeness compared to the general manageress. When we confronted her the next morning, she first tried to claim that we had no reservation, then when we showed her the written confirmation, she claimed that I had the same surname as one of her regular clients and had been crossed off as a no-show. She also claimed that I was lying about speaking to a male receptionist to change the reservation, since in any case, they had no male receptionists who could have changed it (we saw two while we were there). When I pointed out that a) I had a completely different first name, address, E-mail address and country of residence, all of which appeared on the fax I sent them and their return confirmation fax, b) if they had no male receptionists, we should have had our original room, c) in any case, the reservation was secured on a credit card, she launched into a tirade of abuse, the gist of which was that clients who changed their reservation were a ******nuisance that they were too busy to deal with and that what had happened was entirely our fault. You dont have to be a genius at logic to see the inconsistencies here.I can rule out a linguistic misunderstanding as I speak fluent French. I can thus only conclude that a high priority client leaned on the manageress, who gave our room away at short notice, and the fact that we had stayed there before and were travelling with a young child/elderly relative cut no ice with her. Granted, everyone makes mistakes. What irritated me sufficiently to want to sit down and circulate our experience around the Net, though, was her incredible arrogance and disbelief that she had done anything wrong. I go to Paris about twice a year, and am a regular at half a dozen hotels, so it wasnt hard to find a suitable replacement. I can imagine that our experience would be much more distressing for a non-French speaking novice traveller. So please take note it happened to us, and since this hotel seems to be fully booked most of the time, it may well happen to you too!PS I see that the lady above seems to have had a similar experience.

I only have good things to say about this hotel. It looks very plain Jane from the street, but once I opened the gate door, I was overwhelmed with the charming beauty of it's quaintness. We had french windows opening onto the courtyard. In the morning I could hear school children singing in the choir- it was the best. We didn't try the food but there are dozens of restaurants within mere minutes of walking, bakeries to die for. For sure, it's the only place I'll stay in every time I get to Paris!