Ibis Paris Montmartre Sacré-Coeur

It’s in a good location, close to Montmartre and also to the Place de Clichy metro station. From Gare du Nord, either get a taxi or take metro line 4 to Barbes-Rochechouart, which has escalators, then line 2 to Place de Clichy. Once there, the exit marked “rue Caulaincourt” is the most direct but it is steps only with no lift - so be warned if you have a heavy bag. The other exit does have an escalator part of the way but then you have to go back round on yourself. ||The hotel itself is comfortable in the same way as any other Ibis - so no great frills but a decent bed and quite a cosy feel. No kettle or tea/coffee is provided, quite common in France. Good English is spoken at the front desk. They were also helpful when my TV stopped working. Be warned, there were no English channels, but French TV seems to have a lot of copies of familiar shows so it hardly matters. The Masked Singer in French is still enjoyable. And I became quite a fan of “Le Juste Prix” aka “The Price is Right”, which is just as over the top in French, if not more so!||Rooms are not big, as would be expected in a capital city. However I found my room perfectly okay. I paid around £130 a night for the room in May with no breakfast - that was a refundable rate and I could have got it about 10% cheaper if I’d booked a non-refundable rate. It seemed a fair price for what I got and it didn’t drop below that rate as far as I could tell. ||Breakfast seemed expensive at €14 each but I just went elsewhere. This is the middle of Paris, you’re not exactly short of choice. I have to say Paris is not cheap, so the breakfast began to look better value for money as the days went by. ||One night, someone kept trying my door unsuccessfully and when I answered, they showed me a key card with my room number on it! No doubt a simple transcription error by the front desk. Their key didn’t work but it did make me wonder what would have happened if I’d been out at the time. ||Then that same night my key wouldn’t work. The slot seemed sticky or something and the key actually got stuck in it. Needless to say this happened at the end of a long day when I was tired and just wanted to go to bed. It turned out it was the battery in the door slot thing. Why don’t they use touch keys rather than those old slot things? Bit annoying. ||I went to the bar one night and to say it was lacking in atmosphere is putting it mildly. It was also lacking a barman or woman, which was more of a problem. He turned up after ten minutes, then proceeded to serve me a bottle of coke without bothering to take the cap off! ||These experiences do show certain problems with the hotel. But I did like the location, and would probably stay again.