Thumbs Up- Hotel a Hit
 

A few months ago I asked if anybody knew about Hotel St Andre Des Artes, a modest one star hotel in the Latin Quartier. I got a very enthusiastic response so I booked it for my college daughter and friend who have been is Spain studying Spanish. They just arrived in Paris and she is ecstatic with the hotel's location, price (80E) and it's general funkiness.

Cool!

Thanks for the information, it's always great to have a "first-hand" report on a hotel, especially on a budget property. I'll put this information in my Paris hotel notes!

Hi vivi,

Sounds good. Could you explain "funkiness"?

ira, I suspect it is a place you don't want to wear an evening dress with opera cape. ((b)) ;)

That's what I thought, Budman. :)

Since I may have been the one to give the first response, I'll try snd define the 'funkiness' of this hotel. It's very old, with walls and stairs a little out of square. Some of the walls are painted odd colors - orange, brown, etc. Some of the flooring has seen better days. The owner was often playing vintage jazz records on an old record player in the lobby. Not exactly the Ritz, but an interesting place. This was several years ago - I'm not sure what has changed since then. The location is great, especially if you want to be enveloped in the whole Left Bank scene right at your doorstep.

Well, she said the hotel was ancient and shabby, the people staying there are interesting, internatinal, and friendly, the staff has been helpful. She said the rooms have huge gigantic ceilings and long winodws, there are church pews in the lobby. she loves the location, says all of the Left Bank is right outside their door. It is tough to find a hotel in that area for under $100 a night. Not sure I would want to stay at a one star hotel but it is drfinitely a step above hosteling of which my daughter was vey weary!

We stayed at the St Andre des Arts back in the Pleistocene era, and it was way funky then (actually we called it "decrepit.") It offered a Darwinian solution to too much Pernod - the WC was on a landing half a flight down from our room, and our door opened right onto the stair, as in no threshold - open door, step down. The stair was "out of square" as Zootsi says. In the middle of a night with a touch of Left Bank joie de vivre still clouding one's senses, that step was a doozy.