Hey, you! 😎
Okay, so I'm just gonna go ahead and say it now because I want to - Hotel Terre Neuve (click here for their website) in Paris, France turned out to be quite a surprise! And when I say surprise, I mean that in a very, very good way. Which is not to say that it was perfect because perfection does not exist.
Anyways ...
Let me begin with the two semi-negative points of this hotel. I say semi-negative because I feel like they're not deal-breakers and that there are solutions to those 2 points.
Oh but wait, I actually just thought of a third one and this one could potentially be a deal-breaker.
Alright, so there are no family rooms. Paris is not known for having large hotel rooms, mainly because of the architecture of this old city. It makes sense, but parents travelling with kids might not see it that way. If you have one child, then I guess he / she could sleep in the parent's bed or if you reserve the Superior Room (which is 16m²), it might be possible to fit in a travel baby crib in the room. But if you have two kids, then I don't think it would work out. And forget about young teenagers - you would definitely have to get a second room for them. And I'm not sure they have connecting rooms. So yeah, that's a deal-breaker for me.
For this trip, we were 3 adults and 1 teenager, so we had to get 2 rooms anyways. That worked out just fine, but otherwise I don't know how I would feel about S being alone in a hotel room that's not connected to ours.
Next, the two semi-negative points.
First would be the location. Don't expect this hotel to be in the city center of Paris - it's not! It's actually far from the city center - not in distance, like kilometres. I'm talking the time it takes to get there with the traffic jam and stuff. But it's located in a super quiet area, therefore you can wind down and relax peacefully at the end of a busy day.
Second would be the fact that there is no elevator. Again, blame the architecture for this. If this is an issue for you, then I strongly recommend calling the hotel when you make your reservation. Personally, I didn't want to stay on the ground floor because I had heard that it does get noisy with the guests' in-and-outs. I asked for rooms on the first floor which was perfect for us and the very nice man at the reception offered to carry our bags to our rooms.
Now that that's out of the way - let me get to the positive points.
First, customer service. The two men at the reception were very accommodating and they really went out of their way to talk to us, help us with our baggage, call a taxi, give us information, just to name a few things. We didn't have breakfast at the hotel, but I'm pretty confident that that would have turned out great, at least service-wise.
Second, accessibility to public transportation. As I mentioned earlier, this hotel is located a bit far out from the city center, but it is accessible by the subway. There are actually 2 Metro lines not too far from the hotel. Metro Line Alexandre Dumas is 450 meters away (6 minutes on foot) and on the other side, Metro Line Avron is also 450 meters away! I'm sure there is a bus line, but we didn't take the bus to the hotel so I can't really say anything about it. The hotel might not be in the city center where you can find the world's most famous landmarks, but it's 900 meters away (11 minutes on foot) from La Place de la Nation and Le Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise about 1 kilometre away, where you can find the tomb of Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, and Edith Piaf for example.
Third, accessibility to a mini-supermarket and restaurants. We found a mini-supermarket, Carrefour Market, about 400 meters away (about 5 minutes on foot) and which was convenient to buy water, fruit juice, breakfast food, and snacks! The hotel is also near some great restaurants, especially one that I've seen a lot on Instagram lately. Mangez et Cassez-Vous (click here for their IG) is known for their cheap, but very delicious homemade burgers! Would you believe if I told you that the burgers are a little less than 3 Euros?? Yup, that's right! Next time, we will definitely try this place!
Fourth, the room. It might have been small, but it was very clean which is one of the, if not, the most important point for me. It is decorated in a very modern but minimalist way - similar to the Scandinavian design. It is very inviting and comfortable largely due to the fact that the ceiling is high. So although the room is small in square meter, you don't feel too cramped during there's a lot of space above your head. We loved that and the high windows as well, which brought in a lot of natural light. It was very different from our experience at The Playce Hotel (click here for the post), which had absolutely no natural light coming in.
Fifth, the air-conditioning. If you're planning to visit Paris in the summer, double-check to see that the hotel you're planning to stay at has air-conditioning. I've noticed that a lot of Parisian hotels do not have air-conditioning, only heater for the winter. Again, blame the architecture.
Also, there's something else I have to share because it blew our minds away. Hahaha. So I don't know about you, but I always find that hotel room refrigerators barely ever work. Most of the time, we don't even use it because we don't see the difference between using it or not. So imagine our surprise when we noticed that our water was iced cold and slightly frozen the next day! That was a definite first for us and I thought it was worth mentioning.
Sixth and last, the price. We paid 111 Euros for 1 room / 1 night at the end of June. This is high peak season in Paris because of highly mediatized event such as the Roland Garros, Fashion Event, etc .... So while 100+ Euros might be a lot of money, it is quite reasonable in Paris during this season and with all the positive points I mentioned above. Trust me, I've paid more and for way worse in the past. I truly find this place a gem!
So here's how our stay at Hotel Terre Neuve went. Pretty positive as you can tell. The only thing I regret is not having had breakfast there, but the next time we will do it (because yes, there will be a next time!). Would I recommend this place? Definitely, but again only for couples or adults without young kids!
Any Paris hotel recommendations?