Primitivism in luxury

A permanent traveller is always concerned about the quality of the hotel where the night is spend.

This has always been a difficult issue in Paris.
Unless one stays in a four or five stars hotel for very high prices, conditions in Paris hotels are often hardly human.
Very small rooms.
Tiny bathrooms.
Dangerously winding and narrow staircases.
And biggest problem of all, most Paris hotels are extremely noisy.
Of traffic passing by underneath the window day and night.
Cars, trucks and motorbikes loudly entering and leaving the room with their strong noises and fatal fumes.

But this time the permanent traveller has been extremely lucky.
A hotel has been booked that passes every test.
Except one.

The hotel is called “A la villa des Artistes” and belongs to the Best Western chain.
It has three stars and is near Boulevard Saint Germain and Tour Montparnasse.
In the Rue de la Grande Chaumiere.

The hotel is not a villa at all.
Just one of the buildings in the street.
And the price of the rooms, € 199 (270 $) keeps artists out of the villa.
To compensate, all the corridors are decorated with art.
By highlighting Paris artists showing how they lived, explaining who they were and having examples of their work.
For somebody in the art business himself, to be in this kind of hotel is like a basketball fan in a hotel with pictures of basketball stars on the walls.
It is like the right smell in the nest.
Buddies with similar bodies.

The room is huge for Paris standards. Modern, clean and very well equipped.


It has air conditioning but one can also open the windows to see Paris and a garden underneath.


Hardly any traffic noise as the room is in the back.



The ideal hotel is the conclusion.
With a most friendly and helpful staff.

But there is one issue with the “A la Villa des Artistes”.
The Internet is not working properly in the room.
Best Western has given the availability of Internet in the rooms to a company called “Meteor”.
A guest gets a certain time on the Internet after which “Meteor” starts charging.
What can cost money, will cost money is the motto.

However, in room 404, the WIFI signal is too weak.
The signal comes and goes and doing the work on the computer is sabotaged.
The friendly Francois at the reception called “Meteor” and they promised to fix it.
But to no avail.
“Meteor” is one of those companies that makes promises to keep everybody quiet in the short term but does nothing in the long term.

The only way to use the Internet and receive a strong enough WIFI signal is to sit on a bed near the window.
Forced to abandon the desk.
With the laptop on the knees.

Primitivism in luxury.



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