Thursday 19 February 2015

CitizenM @ Paris Charles De Gaulle

Time for another Paris post! This time i'm gonna tell you a little about where we chose to stay. We decided to stay at an airport hotel so we didn't have to cart our luggage around on the metro. Big suitcases and busy trains wouldn't be a good mix. There's a good selection of places to stay around the airport, and I love fun, quirky, modern hotels. So there was only one option for me... CitizenM!

Citizen M offers a soft XL bed, free wifi imyours, TV with movies and a rain shower. Their website is conversational, fun and easy to navigate and also has some cool tips of things to see and do around Paris. The hotel itself is located about a two minute walk from the airport shuttle station, which connects to the train station too, with regular trains direct into central Paris. From the outside, it looks modern and cool, and i'd definitely have wanted to chill out on the swinging bench out front if it was summer time and not cold and rainy during our trip.


You had me at nice pillows. I'm a pillow fiend. I sleep with four and have a supply of about 8 cushions for back up.

The lobby felt more like walking into your new rich and eccentric friends home, than a hotel. Sofas, arm chairs, big TV's and bookcases of curios everywhere! The lobby also hosted the automated check-in desk, which was quick and easy to use, and there was always staff about to offer assistance. I loved that the room keys would double as luggage tags if you needed to store your luggage with the hotel while you went off exploring before or after your room was available.

Just past the living area lobby were a bunch of iMac's with free printing followed by some more seating, the bar and CanteenM. The bar faces the elevators to guest rooms, and there was always someone to say hello at the bar when we came down in the morning or got back at night.


It was starting to get dark by the time we arrived, so the lights were on and the blinds were shut. Peeking out revealed we'd been given a runway view room! Which I was hoping for, so yay! Half of the small room is taken up by this giant marshmallow of a bed. It's compact, but at no point does it ever claim to be anything but. We planned to spend long days exploring the city, and barely any time at 'base camp' so we really didn't need that much space. We could sleep, shower and head off for the day. The only time there wasn't really enough space for both of us, was packing to go home. So we just took turns. There was even two mirrors so we could both do our make up at the same time.

 
Almost everything in the room is controlled by the MoodPad. A Samsung tablet that turns on the tv, the heat, air, blinds and the main room and mood lights. We had great fun with those. There's something quite amusing about being in a purple shower that suddenly becomes yellow. The shower itself was amazing, and just like being under a stream of heavy rain. I want one at home, and one of the beds! The bed was amazing. If I had one at home I don't think i'd ever get out of it. We didn't even have to get out of it to turn the TV or lights off at night, as that was all done by the MoodPad.

There was a good choice of movies available on the TV and over the course of the week we watched both Despicable Me films, Snow White & The Huntsman and Les Mis! It was nice to be able to pop the BBC on in the morning too. There was free wi-fi, so we used that to check in on directions and weather, and to check in with what was going on at home.


The room was clean, the towels were soft, fluffy and good sizes too. The hairdryer had plenty of power too and did a good (and quick) job of drying our hair. The little fridge was stocked with little bottles of Evian for us each night too. I slept on the side nearest the window. There was some noise from the runway, but it was soft background noise and I found it quite easy to fall asleep and it never woke me up during the night. I suppose after those long days of exploring we would have slept through them zipping right past the window...


We ate at the hotel a few times. It was buffet style, so you pay for a dish or a dish with sides and so on then serve yourself. I was absolutely thrilled to see that there was always one meal that was completely veggie! I had ratatouille a few times which put a bit of a grin on my face because I was really hoping i'd find it on the menu somewhere at least once! I'm pleased to report it was lovely, warm and comforting food. I had it once with rice (which was surprisingly tasty) and once with a yummy potato gratin. I also had the tofu curry which was waaaay too spicy for me. If you like spicy then definitely give it a try, but if like me and just showing the dish a spice jar makes it too spicy, maybe give it a miss. I've just realised I forgot to take a picture of the breakfast we had on the last day. I do remember that we were hungry and there was lots of choice both hot and cold.

Check out the comfy chair by the window that I was chilling out on before heading back to the airport. 

It cost us between 70 and 80€ a night between the two of us, which I think was really great value considering the fact it was an airport hotel, conveniently located and the in-room features. If I was heading back to Paris, i'd definitely stay here again. They also have a handful of other hotels scattered around the world. I'm eying up Rotterdam, as my brother has been to the city before and said it is a really beautiful place. There are also two CitizenM's in nearby Amsterdam, another city on our 'wanderlist'. Let's not forget good old New York. I'd love it if they opened up in more UK locations, so I had somewhere nice to stay after gigs and concerts.

Did I mention the rain shower?!

Catch you later!









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rain.
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