Booking hotels in France

I've spent several hours today booking up the hotels for the French leg of my trip. I'd originally planned to stay in the very nice Logis de France but sterlings recent tumble against the euro (currently at around 1.1 euros to the pound) mean that it would cost an awful lot more than I'd planned.

So I've settled on a mixture of hotels, both cheap and expensive, figuring that by alternating between them the expensive ones will feel luxurious and the cheap ones worthily frugal.

Bottom of the range is the Formule 1. We've used them for one night stopovers in France on the long drive to the south, which we've done many times. They're basic and very reasonable value: less than 30 euros for a room that can sleep up to three. There's no en suite bathroom but, apart from one memorable occasion in Mulhouse when the place was being used by a local prostitute to entertain her clients, we've never really had any trouble. The biggest hassle is waiting to use the showers and being awoken by screaming, excited, and usually English, kids. They don't include restaurants, which is fine if, as sometimes happens, there's a selection of cheap local places nearby. But as they're located on industrial estates and on motorway exits, it's possible that I might get a bit stuck. I think I'll need to google for nearby eateries before I set off. I've planned six nights of the total of fifteen in these bottom of the range places.

Slightly more up market (only just) are the Etap hotels. They're part of the same Accor chain as Formule 1 and I've found one to stay at.

Then there's Premiere Classe, which again we've used before on family holidays. They're my first choice for ultra-budget hotels, being only slightly more expensive than Formule 1 but feeling quite a bit more special. Certainly the websites of Premiere Classe feel a bit more snappy and I notice they boast wifi in the rooms - a feature than I'm not sure Formule 1 have yet fitted. One of my nights will be spent inside the sheets of Premiere Classe establishments at £35 per night.

I have two more nights at the Kyriad in Rouen, part of the same company that runs Premiere Classe. These look quite comfortable and are £65 per room per night.

Finally, the remaining five nights are in the (anticipated) luxury of the Logis de France. They range from £67 to £107 (the latter being half board and also in fashionable Nanterre, where Nicolas Sarkozy was mayor until his election to the presidency). The Logis are independently run, so I'm expecting a bit more character from them.

It's taken ages to sort this lot out and I've had to fight the temptation to settle for something convienent to book today that might turn out to be a bit grim or inconvient en route. We'll have to see how it all works out and I'm expecting surprises - nice ones as well as not so nice.