Hotel des 3 Nations and other Paris, France Hotel/Accommodation Reviews

Hotel Des 3 Nations: Hotel des 3 Nations

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Updated by Nemorino

on Oct 24, 2008

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1. View from my window

by Nemorino , 4 more photos

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I chose this hotel because it was inexpensive and within easy walking distance of the Gare de l'Est (East Station), which is where the trains from Frankfurt am Main are scheduled to arrive, and often do.

This is an old hotel and smells a bit musty in some corners, but I liked it because the people were friendly and I had a very quiet room looking onto a courtyard which was no doubt very shabby in earlier times, but now has lots of ivy growing on the walls and looks quite pleasant. They let people keep their bicycles in the courtyard over night, which is a big plus point even though I didn't need it this time because I was using the Velib' bikes.

Breakfast choices were limited, as is usual in cheap Paris hotels, but what they had was fine and they never ran out of croissants.

Since this hotel is called the "Hotel of the 3 Nations" I of course wanted to know which three nations they had in mind, but nobody could tell me until I met the owner, a friendly Chinese woman who said that when she bought the hotel she kept the traditional name which it has had for many years. She doesn't know why that name was originally chosen, or by whom, but for her the three nations are the nation where the hotel is located (France) the nation she comes from (China) and whatever nation the guest comes from.

Otherwise the only Chinese aspect of the hotel is that in the bathroom the little packets of shower cream and shampoo have lots of Chinese writing on them, plus a few words in a charming variety of English.

The light blue packet is labeled:

Sharcart Shampoo
base make treatment
ANTI-DANARAFF
SOFTENING SHINY
show whole mode
women
formal elegant demeanour

And the pink packet is labeled:

Sharcart
Shower
base make treatment
FRAGRANCE
SKIN WHITERING
show whole mode
women
formal elegant demeanour

Any questions?

Second photo: Hotel des 3 Nations from the street.

Third photo: Lobby of the Hotel des 3 Nations.

Fourth photo: A girl on a Velib' bike riding past the hotel.

Fifth photo: Velib' station 10001 at Place Johann Strauss, just a block from the hotel.

Update: Thanks to VT member JLBG (Jean-Louis) for doing some research into the name of this hotel. He found several references to "the three nations" from various centuries. The earliest was from the year 1266, when the University of Paris had two rectors, one for the Nation of France and one for "the three Nations of Picardie, Normandie and England."

Jean-Louis wrote "That would be fine but seems too old."

So he kept on looking and found several other possibilities. The most plausible seems to be from the 19th century, as described by Karl Kautsky (1854-1938) in "The Three Sources of Marxism."

Kautsky has a chapter called "The synthesis of German, French and English thought" in which he writes:

"In the 19th century, three nations represented modern civilization. Only someone who had assimilated the spirit of all three, and had thus armed himself with all the acquisitions of his century, could have produced the immense body of work that Marx accomplished.

The synthesis of the thought of these three nations, in which each of them loses its unilateral aspect, constitutes the point of departure for the historical contribution of Marx and Engels." (My translation.)

After finding this quotation, Jean-Louis wrote: "Not sure that this is THE explanation but that gave me a clue. I went back to 'Hotel des trois Nations' and found that it was 'A quelques minutes de la Gare de l'Est et de la Gare du Nord'. Then, it is clear that the three Nations are France, Germany (Gare de l'Est) and England (Gare du Nord). I have always learned that the more obvious the explanation is, the more likely it is to be true, so I believe this is THE explanation. Thank you Karl Marx for the clue!"

And thank you Jean-Louis for checking this out!

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Theme: Hotel
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: US$80-120 » Currency Converter
Phone: +33 (0) 1 42 38 18 18
Address: 13, rue du Chateau d'Eau, 75010 Paris
Directions: Velib' 10001, 10011
Métro Jacques Bonsergent, République
GPS 48°52'11.41" North; 2°21'38.07" East
Website: http://hotel3nations.online.fr/

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Hotel Luxour: Now called Hotel L'Annexe

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Updated by Nemorino

on Oct 13, 2008

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1. Taylor and Luxour Hotels

by Nemorino , 4 more photos

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I booked this hotel in 2006 through bookings.org, which by the way I found through OneTime.com, so again I hasten to eat my words and take back all the disparaging remarks I used to make about OneTime.

These are actually two small hotels under the same management, the Hotel Taylor in the foreground, and the Hotel Luxour behind. The reception for both is in the Taylor, which is also where the free internet connection is (the computer on the right is much faster than the one on the left).

The Luxour is a very basic little hotel, with only the bare necessities but nothing more. This bothered me a bit at first, even though I had chosen it mainly for the low price, but the longer I stayed here the better I liked it. The staff was very friendly and helpful, and the free internet connection was of course a big plus for a VT member, LOL.

This hotel is within easy walking distance of the Gare de l'Est railroad station, by the way. (About seven or eight blocks, depending on what you count as a block. Though they aren't really "blocks" in a city like this, more like irregular polygons.)

Second photo: A French breakfast cost 5 Euros at the Luxour and 6 at the Taylor, which might seem a bit much compared to the big breakfast buffets you can get at hotels in other cities, but the same French breakfast would cost 7 to 9 Euros in a café on the Paris streets, so I mostly ate here at the hotel.

Third photo: They were very nice about letting me keep my bicycle locked up in a safe place overnight, in a closed-off little courtyard behind the Taylor.

Fourth photo: The closest monument to this hotel is this slightly greenish bust of the composer Johann Strauss Jr. (1825-1899), whom I have already mentioned on my Magdeburg page.

Fifth photo: Two years later, in 2008, the former Hotel Luxor is now called the Hotel L'Annexe, presumably meaning that it is the annex to the Hotel Taylor next door -- though the Taylor is not mentioned on the attractive new L'Annexe website.

Fourth installment of new Paris tips, concluded: one new Local Customs tip, posted on October 9, 2008.

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Theme: Hotel
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: US$40-80 » Currency Converter
Phone: +33 (0)1 42 08 23 91
Address: 4, rue Taylor, 75010 Paris
Directions: Velib' 10001
Métro Jacques Bonsergent
GPS 48°52'9.26" North; 2°21'32.52" East
Website: http://www.annexe-paris-hotel.com/

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