http://www.safarihotel.fr/
Location: We backed into Hotel Safari because we couldn't find anyplace closer to one of the three main towns at the foot of Mt. Ventoux (Sault, Malaucene, and Bedoin) for all three nights we were to be in the area. We were able to arrange for two nights in Bedoin at Hotel des Pins, but they didn't have space for us our first night.
We arrived in Lyon and didn't get headed towards Carpentras until after 9 pm (because Linda's bike arrived on a separate flight--it least it was the same day. If we hadn't waited for it, the airline was talking about 4-5 days to get it to us. So we waited. It really did show up on the next flight). It was a little over 2 hours' drive. We just needed a place to crash, and a location to put the bikes back together. I knew Safari's layout from having stayed there in 2006 and I knew it would fit the bill. If we could have booked all three nights in Bedoin we would have, but Hotel Safari worked out just fine.
Carpentras is only 12 kms to Bedoin, thus a nice warm-up if you were to begin a ride to Ventoux from the hotel. There were two supermarkets nearby, a sporting goods store with a pretty good selection of cycling gear, tools, parts--which came in handy in 2006 when we needed a derailleur pulley. Downtown Carpentras was a fairly long walk, but reasonable.
Rate: 95 euros for a double facing the back of the hotel, 120 euros for a pool view, 180-280 euros for a suite. No meals included, no demi-pension option (demi pension = half board, breakfast and dinner. In Italy the term is "mezza pensione"). We ate breakfast there thinking it was included only to discover it was 10 euros apiece when we checked out. The pool view has a balcony--worth an extra 25 euros? I didn't think so. We were going to be there for just one night anyway.
Some hotels may back away from a reservation if it's not a minimum number of days (3-5), but if it's the slower season, it's not a big deal. Check when school's out (in France the school year ends early July), check schedules of big races. We added an additional day in Bedoin before leaving for the Alps because the Criterium du Dauphine was in the Alps through the 13th. The Dauphine at weekend--plus it occasionally uses Mt. Ventoux. Check for Gran Fondos and cyclosportifs--Le Marmotte, for instance, is the first weekend in July every year). July and August are BIG vacation months in Europe.
Most hotels' rates change as they get deeper into summer. In France, their rates jump earlier in the year than they do in Italy. By the time we arrived on June 11, the French hotels had already gone to their in-season rates. The French hotel high-season rates began in late May/early June. In Italy, it was usually the last weekend in June, or very early July.
Many of these hotels close in fall and reopen in spring. To avoid running into availability issues, arrange your room before the fall closure with the French hotels, at least in Provence. If you wait for them to reopen in the spring it's a much more difficult search and can be frustrating. We didn't have any trouble finding hotels in Italy in spring.
Rooms: They have remodeled since we were last there. It looks very good. It's clean, comfortable, if not a little sterile. No complaints.
Food: Breakfast was probably the weakest of the trip, particularly when considering how much it cost--10 euros--about $12.50. The selection was limited, no muesli, no granola, no other cereals, minimal bread choices. You could boil your own eggs. I don't like boiled eggs--soft or hard.
Staff: Sophie Rieu speaks English and works the front counter during the day. She's very nice and was helpful arranging the room. I corresponded with her via e-mail and spoke with her twice by phone. Otherwise, being we were there just the one day, our contact with the remainder of the staff was very limited. The young man staffing the counter when we arrived at 11:30 pm was a college student, and he also spoke English. One of the young men in the restaurant next morning was also a college student but from Germany and earning money for the next school year. He also spoke English. No complaints.
Language: No hassles here with communication.
Recommend?
+ Clean, recently renovated, English speaking staff
- Its price, room only, was on the high side and their food is fairly expensive. Breakfast offerings were not that great.
I'd look elsewhere first.
Hotel des Pins, Bedoin, France, July 12-13, 2010, two nights.
http://www.hotel-des-pins.fr/eng/accueil.htm
Location: excellent, just a couple of kms from downtown Bedoin.
Rate: 140 euros for two, demi-pension (half board). We booked the "little room 18", as it is described in their website, because it was the cheapest. Their standard, larger rooms were 150-170 euros for two, half board. Exchange rate running about $1.25 at the time. 140 euros for two was the most we paid for half-board on the trip--but not by a lot. We paid 65 euros each at another location. The least we paid, in Italy, was 55 euros/person in Arabba.
Rooms: Room 18 was, in fact, small, but large enough for us. We left the bikes in the car freeing up space. I had trouble sleeping just two nights our entire trip. The first night was the first night at Hotel des Pins because of the wall AC unit's odd sounds. But just that first night. The next night we figured out how to set the thing, plus we were exhausted from riding our bikes all over Mt. Ventoux.
Food: The breakfast was what we came to find as pretty standard just about everywhere we went thereafter: breads, croissants, jams, muesli, juices, yogurt. There was plenty to choose from and, I thought, it was certainly adequate. The dinners here were decent, but not spectacular.
Staff: The owner and his wife (I only remember her name, Anne Sophie) spoke English. The remainder of the staff did not, which really was not a problem since the few times we tried to speak with them we were just trying to strike up a conversation. We did have trouble once with the key to the room--it wouldn't unlock the door. Trying to describe what was happening to the desk clerk was difficult and we eventually had to simply bring her to the door and show her. No big deal, though. They were friendly and we smiled and shook our heads at each other a lot.
Language: it was not an issue on this visit. Nothing happened to warrant an in depth conversation, i.e. we didn't have to complain to them about anything, ask for anything unusual, etc.
Recommend?
+ Owner spoke some English. Breakfast was decent, on par with others later in the trip.
- Dinners were so-so, the room was small (but I asked for "little room 18", so I can't really blame them). It just didn't have a great feel, or atmosphere, about it, overall. But, they were the only ones to respond with a vacancy.
This website has links to several other Ventoux area hotels. Several looked promising, but they didn't have a room for the dates we needed.
http://www.ventoux-hotel.fr/
Hotel Safari dining room.
Garden view from dining area at Hotel des Pins.
I used Google to locate hotels. I'd type in "carpentras france hotels", for instance, and Google would present a list of hotels, plus a map of the locale with hotels highlighted. If you place the cursor on these locations, it would show the hotel and whether it had a website. No website? Off the list. Next, did the website have an English language option? If not, off the list. Next I'd check the rates. If the rates were not readily available on the site, they were off the list. If prices and location, etc., looked good, I'd e-mail them in English. If they responded in English, great, if not, they were off the list. It worked out pretty well--Used this method to find lodging in Provence, Bourg d'Oisans, and Bormio.
No comments:
Post a Comment