Hotel des Grandes Ecoles Paris

Phone 01-43-26-79-23
Fax 01-47-47-65-48

Be aware that this place is not air conditioned and if you get stuck in one of their upper floor rooms it can be a misery. We were in one of these 'attic' rooms a couple of years ago when we measured the temperature in our room in the afternoon at 100F and it didn't come down below about 85 at night. There is no airflow. If they would install a ceiling fan in the hallway to vent upward as any Kansas farm house does, it would bring the temperature down when the night cools, but they don't even crack the skylight. The place is also very tired and hasn't been refurbished in awhile -- our room was shabby and had many creepy stains.

It has a great garden and in early spring or late fall can be a delight -- we have stayed there several times in temperate weather. But in summer it can be miserable; we will never book there again in summer.

the phone is 33 1 43 26 79 23

We have stayed at this hotel several times and used to like it for its garden. Last visit I requested (many months ahead) a room overlooking the garden in the building with an elevator. Upon arrival we learn we have a room that accommodates a third person--there are just the two of us and the larger room is, of course, a higher rate (booked for five nights). There was no possibility of getting another room-place fully booked. This room was in the building with no elevator and our room was three floors up a spiral staircase. Our view was of the trash cans below our window. Will find another hotel next visit to Paris.

Or their email address should be: [email protected]

Susan, when we got the creepy stained attic room, we also had no options and the elevator was broken. The very chirpy able bodied young man on duty looked at us two old people with luggage on the top floor that needed to come down when we left and said 'it is too bad we don't have a bellman here.' We insisted he carry the bags down and he finally did since the elevator had been out of service for some time.

Obviously elevator problems can happen and often do in Paris, but the lack of customer care at this place made this our last time there.

Janet--glad you insisted on your bags being taken down. We stayed in the white building adjacent (does not connect ) to the reception area/breakfast room building and there isn't ( and never was) an elevator. The ideal rooms are in the building across from reception--nicer rooms and garden view. I think the best chance of getting one of these rooms is if you are staying 1 or 2 nights--4 or 5 they put you in a higher priced room. Arriving with jet lag, taking the RER to Luxemburg Metro stop, and walking to Cardinal Lemione mostly uphill with luggage was not my idea of fun--then the surprise of the third story room sans elevator.

The hotel's website seems to be working today, it wasn't yesterday. I'm distressed to hear of people's bad experiences with this place, we loved it when we stayed there ten years ago, and we revisited as recently as last fall, the same people seemed to be running it. We had a fine room on, I think, the third (US-style) floor overlooking the garden, across from the reception desk. We loved the location, atmosphere, and wallpaper with 18th-century ballooning theme. But it was September so AC wasn't an issue, and we were there 12 nights so they must have given us one of the better rooms. Plus we booked it way ahead.

As far as I know, the hotel is still recommended by RS and other guidebooks, and gets mostly good reviews on Trip Advisor and elsewhere. If you can access its website, I hope you'll give it a chance. They don't start booking rooms until six months before the date of stay, and then they fill quickly.

We stayed 5 nights the first week of April and enjoyed it. Our corner room overlooked the street and garden lane. The hotel is in a good location and seemed reasonably priced for the four of us. While not perfect, it was clean and the staff was friendly. There were two others (one couple/one single) in our group and their rooms were comparable to ours in quality. Both parties were also pleased with their stay.