Thanks for all you info. I am now making reservations at the Mercure Paul Cezanne. I have two questions. One..about the hotel rooms. According to the 1-800 number, they have Queen size beds. Don't laugh!!!! Can anyone tell me whether the beds in this hotel are really Queen size. A friend of mine insists I will be disappointed and will find a small double bed. PLEASE HELP!!!<BR><BR>Second, I read there was a lot of construction on the Cours Mirabeau. Is that still going on? Does anyone know when it will be completed?<BR><BR>Thanks again<BR><BR>Arlene

Sorry I can't tell you anything about the hotel and its beds, but it might help you to know that a standard double in France is 140 cm, so a Queen would be about 160 and a King 180. (I suppose you could ask for the measurements if it's that important to you.)As for the Cours Mirabeau, according to info I found on an Aix-en-Provence web site the work is *scheduled* to be completed in spring of 2002. So maybe for summer...?

I also think that if you really want to make sure, ask them the size of the bed in cm. Some French hotels now actually do have queen-size beds, at least some higher-end ones or the newer ones, so it is not impossible. However, I will admit I've had French hotels use that term to mean anything from a bed slightly larger than a twin to a real 160 cm queen-size. Once I had a hotel in Strasbourg claim that my room had TWO queen-size beds in it (I was alone). I found this hard to believe as few hotels I stay in (2-3 star) had ever had one, I just wanted to be sure I had a double bed and not twin-size. Sure enough, the room only had two twin-size beds pushed together to make a king-size. I've seen several photos of the rooms in that hotel on different web sites and they do look like queen size, although I note they have regular and superior rooms. As for Cours Mirabeau, I was just there last summer and don't recall any noticeably unusual construction on it at that time. Maybe I was in a fog, but if there was any, it wasn't that terrible.

Thanks once again for your input. They claim to have a 160 cm bed, so I guess I should trust them and go ahead with a Queen. This is my first experience in a 3* hotel, so I was leary. But everyone I have spoken to says not to worry...3*'s can be very nice.<BR><BR>I am getting really excited about this trip.<BR><BR>Any restaurant suggestions? We'll be in Nice and Provence.<BR><BR>Thanks Arlene<BR><BR>Arlene

Don't get hung up on the star rating when selecting a hotel. The finest hotel I have ever found in France has three stars probably because it doesn't have an elevator. Better to rely on the opinions of others who have stayed there or whatever other information you might be able to dredge up.

Yes, in early November in Aix, Cours Mirabeau was still under construction but it is not odious and cars were still going through, albeit slowly.