Sleep|Côte d'Azur

Sleep | Côte d’Azur

Aside from the luxury hotels, which are typically beyond reach, choosing a hotel in a new city is often a crap shoot. There are frequent surprises, good and bad, and experiences and yardsticks from previous locations sometimes do not translate to the next destination. For this trip, we also had the added concern about conserving our dwindling fund. So, we thought it over and decided that we simply wanted a clean and conveniently located place to sleep in, knowing that we would be spending most of our time outside, especially on the beach. Nez took the lead and actually did most of the work looking at the many photos and reading the endless reviews. She finally narrowed it down to the Hôtel Little Palace after seeing pictures of a clean looking place and reading mostly positive reviews, and we booked it in the early hours of our departure morning. The plan was to stay there for a few days and then figure out where we should go next. We ended up staying for the entire duration of our trip and was very happy that we did.

Cannes

Hôtel Little Palace * *
18, rue du Vingt-Quatre Août
www.hotel-cannes-littlepalace.com

The narrow footprint of this small hotel stands in contrast to its good size rooms, as French hotels go. The proprietor is an affable, soft-spoken man who shines his Harley out front when he is not out-of-sight behind the front counter, or not there at all. The proprietress is helpful and personable, and speaks English, like her husband, but also Vietnamese. The front desk is mostly vacant and the front door closed so be sure to ask for the entry code.

Our room, No. 305, was clean, sparsely furnished, and faced a small courtyard and thus, was quiet. The powerful AC kept the room cool but its effectiveness might tempt you to stay in when you should be out and about. Housekeeping service ends at noon so if you’re sleeping off the night before, be prepared to forgo a clean set of towels.

The only minuses: the 5€/day charge for Wi-Fi and another 5€/day for each piece of kept luggage. Overall, we really like this simple place, its proximity to the Cannes’s station is a great plus, and we had it for quite a bargain. (4 nights at 69.50€ — paid by credit card; 3 nights at 61.50€ — paid in cash). We had only intended to stay here for the first part of our trip but ended up turning it into our home base from which we made day trips, by train or scooter, to the other towns (and one principality) along the coast.

From our window: Red tiles, humming air
conditioning units, and a quiet courtyard.
A view of our room from the door. That’s Nez’s
new travel carry-on, it reads, “Je voyagerai.”

Our simple room, with everything we need and nothing more, looking back at the door.

The austere bathroom that was spotlessly clean.