I am excited to let you know that all our hotels are booked for the 2024 France tour. Without further ado, here the are, in order in which we will be staying in them.
Paris: Hotel Therese
Hotel Therese
- Website
- Address: 5 rue Therese, 75001 Paris France
- TripAdvisor: 5 stars
- Hotels.com: 9.2 (wonderful)
Honfleur: L’ecole des Demoiselles
Honfleur is a small town on the coast of Normandy made famous by impressionist painters (notably Boudin and Monet). The idea behind staying here is to be close to the old harbor (Vieux Bassin). Photographers will love taking pictures here, and others will enjoy the cafes and shops that surround the harbor. To facilitate that, we wanted a hotel very close to the harbor.
You don’t get much closer than the L’ecole des Demoiselles, which is just a block away. This is an old girls’ school, opened in 1878, and the owners have preserved the charm of the old building, which fits nicely into what you will experience in Honfleur.
We have the entire hotel booked. We can expect to have the full attention of the owners and staff.
L’ecole des Demoiselles
- Website
- Address: 4 Rue de la Foulerie, Honfleur, France
- TripAdvisor: n/a
- Hotels.com: 9.8 (exceptional)
Normandy: Les Villas d’Arromances
I have not stayed here, but I’m excited about this place because it looks very nice and it comes on the recommendation of Colleen Church.
This is the day we will visit the Beaches of Normandy. This hotel is only 30 minutes away, so we’ll be back at the hotel with plenty of time to relax. The hotel sits on the outskirts of town, overlooking the bay. By day, you can enjoy the terrace and garden and it will be a great place to relax during our first image critique as well.
The hotel has only 20 rooms, so we’ll take up more than half of them.
Les Villas d’Arromances
- Website
- Address: 1 Rue du Ft Colonel Job, Arromances-les-Bains, France 14117
- TripAdvisor: 4 stars
- Hotels.com: 9.0 (wonderful)
Mont Saint Michel: Les Terrasses Poulard
Next up is our visit to Mont Saint Michel. Our hotel will actually be on the island, within the walls of Mont Saint Michel.
There are only 3 hotels on Mont Saint Michel, all of them 3-star places. All are part of the historical structure of the Mont, so be prepared for some peculiarities. There will be some stairs, it will be a bit cramped, and the layout will be unusual. Remember we are staying in a 1000-year-old structure!
You cannot drive all the way up to Mont St. Michel. The parking facility is about a mile away, which we could walk, but likely won’t as there is also a shuttle bus. This bus will drop us off on the causeway to Mont Saint Michel and we will walk a few hundred yards to the entrance. The good news is that our hotel will be close to the entrance.
Les Terrasses Poulard presents a great location for photographers on the island. The hotel itself offers some great views of the bay and the surrounding landscape. The stairs to the ramparts are very close. Perhaps most importantly, the location near the entrance makes it easy to get outside the walls for photo opportunities when you see the best conditions.
Les Terrasses Poulard
- Website
- Address: 18 Grand Rue, Le Mont Saint-Michel, France 50170
- TripAdvisor: 3 stars
- Hotels.com: 7.8 (good)
St. Malo: Hotel France Chateaubriand
This hotel is ideally situated in the historic, pedestrian-only part of Saint-Malo. In addition, the front faces a square with multiple cafes, and the hotel backs up to the walls and the coast. We will spend two nights here.
The building was built in 1906 as a family home, and you can still see traces of that throughout the hotel. I have stayed here before with my daughter and we found it comfortable and the breakfast to be very good.
Hotel France et Chateaubriand
- Website
- Address: 12 Place Chateaubriand, Saint-Malo, France 35400.
- TripAdvisor: 4 stars
- Hotels.com: 8.6 (excellent)
Camaret sur Mer: Hotel de France
The Hotel de France is a small hotel along the main strip of a small harbor town called Camaret-sur-Mer. We will be at the tip of the Crozon peninsula and it will feel like you are at the end of the world. We will spend two nights here as we explore the headlands.
This is another one that is all about location. By staying in Camaret, we will be as close as possible to the dramatic scenery at the headlands. By staying on the main strip, we will have easy access to cafes and shops.
Hotel de France
- Website
- Address: 19 Quai Gustave Toudouze, Cararet-sur-Mer, France 29570
- TripAdvisor: 5 stars
- Hotels.com: 8.6 (excellent)
Concarneau: Les Sables Blancs
We’ll spend two nights in this hotel on the beach. It is a small, four-star hotel with only 20 rooms, so we will account for most of it. It backs to the ocean, with outdoor dining options as well.
It will be a great place to relax and have our final image critique of the trip (on our first night). The second day we will head into the historic harbor of Concarneau only 2 kilometers away to explore it. We’ll round off that day with sunset at the beach before adjourning to the hotel to prepare to head back to Paris the next day.
Les Sables Blancs
- Website
- Address: 48 Rue des Sables Blancs, Concarneau, France 29900.
- TripAdvisor: 4 stars
- Hotels.com: 8.8 (excellent)
Return to Paris: Hotel Eiffel Trocadero
For our return to Paris, I wanted to stay someplace close to the Eiffel Tower. That’s partly because our main activity on our return will be a Seine Dinner Cruise, and it departs from a dock by the Eiffel Tower. And it is partly because that is just a nice part of Paris that you’ll enjoy exploring.
Hotel Eiffel Trocadero is a small boutique hotel that sits just above the Eiffel Tower, on Trocadero Square. It is also near metro stops and there are many cafes nearby.
