Hotel Henri IVRive Gauche

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Hotel Henri IV Rive Gauche

Some people demand – and can afford – ultimate luxury. They like to spend a lot of time at their hotel – in the restaurant, bar and pampering themselves. At the other end of the scale, there are backpackers who don’t particularly care where they stay as long as it’s safe and cheap. I fall somewhere in the middle. For me, a hotel is a base from which to explore the city. I spend most of my time out and about taking photographs, returning only to freshen up or rest. The hotel has to be clean, in good repair, safe and central for what I want to do.

I’ve wound up in a couple of dodgy ones that I couldn’t possibly recommend and, with more than a few hotels in Paris that fall into that category, your changes of doing the same are too large to ignore. Previously, I’ve tended to stay a bit further out from the centre where the hotels are a little cheaper and used the excellent Metro to get around.

No more, though. I followed some advice from a friend and booked in at the Hotel Henri IV Rive Gauche - and that’ll be my base from now on. It’s absolutely everything I need in a hotel. The staff are friendly and helpful, the rooms and facilities spotless and the location just perfect. By international standards, the rooms aren’t huge - which means they’re fairly generous for Paris! - but they’re well-furnished, comfortable and have good en-suite facilities.

Room 501
The Henri IV Rive Gauche (don’t confuse it with similar-sounding hotels: Henri the 4th is one of the most popular historical figures in Paris and his name crops up all over the place) isn’t too big and it’s not too small. We were booked in to room 501 on our last trip - at our request. The hotel can’t give you a guarantee that they’ll be able to hold a particular room but they’ll do what they can.


All the rooms ending in -01 appear to face the street – the rue St Jacques – but they also overlook the lovely Saint Severin church which dates back to the 13th century although it was finally finished in the 16th. This is floodlit at night and the prospect from the bedroom window of one of these -01 rooms is glorious. From 501, you can also see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. Every time I looked out of my window through the viewfinder of my Pentax K10D, I saw another little scene worthy of a photograph. I’ve included some of them on this page.

Perfectly placed
Obviously, not all the rooms have such a great view but the hotel’s other plus points still apply. And the best thing about the Henri IV Rive Gauche is its location. Leave the hotel, turn right and the Seine and Notre Dame are just a couple of hundred yards away. Directly across rue St Jacques is the start of the Latin Quarter. There must be a couple of dozen restaurants, most serving good value meals but nothing fancy, within a few minutes walk. There are many other fine restaurants within easy walking distance. I’d recommend the Brasserie Ile Saint Loius but please book in advance as it can get quite busy in the evening, even out of season.

Beautiful walks
The Louvre is just a lovely riverside walk from the hotel and, on the way there, you pass some wonderful architecture such as the huge Hotel de Ville across the river. Turn left out of the hotel and a ten minute walk will take you to the Pantheon. The same walk, in the opposite direction past Notre Dame, will lead you to The Marais.

The area around Notre Dame and Ile de la Cite is the historical heart of Paris and I can’t think of a better hotel from which to base my travels. One final advantage it has is its relative proximity to the Saint-Michel Metro station, a pleasant five minute walk through the Latin Quarter. The station is also on a direct line from Charles de Gaul airport on the local RER rail network. Getting from the airport to the hotel is simple, cheap and efficient.

I’m afraid that this recommendation might sound a bit gushing but a bad hotel can seriously mar a trip to Paris whilst a good one can make your holiday. On future visits my plan is to catalogue some of the less well-known – from a tourist point of view – parts of Paris and this might mean staying at another hotel to cut down on travelling.

Copyright © 2008 Paris Travelogue

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