Negative hotel experiences in Cassis and Paris, Positive one in Aix

In Cassis we stayed at the Hotel de la Plage Mahogany the beginning of October 2022. We stayed in a garden room (not the beach side) and it was a bad experience. There is only a see through glass wall separating the bathroom and shower from the rest of the room and there was active mildew on the bottom of the shower curtain as well as a significant amount on the tile grout. We asked for this to be cleaned but they only briefly scrubbed it and did not change it; they had no other rooms to change us to.

I know it has been difficult to update the guides given the pandemic. If this hotel is still to be included in the Rick Steves France books, I would recommend excluding the garden rooms but also viewing a good sample of the rooms first.

In Paris October, 2022 we made the mistake of booking a stay at the Hotel Castex, on the east end of the Marais. The room and hotel is not very clean, the stairs carpet is greasy, the bed sagged. It looks like they have not updated or maintained things since taking the photos for their website; there are much better values for the same price. I would not recommend staying there or including this in any travel books.

On the other hand, in Aix en Provence we were delighted with our King room at the boutique Hotel Cezanne, Centre Ville which was an oasis after leaving Cassis, very clean and comfortable and a great location for exploring Aix and its markets.