Le Champlain

Lovely hotel set in the heart of La Rochelle, big rooms, comfy beds and very nice staff, car parking just across the road and underground not expensive.

Our two night stay here, unfortunately, didn’t go well. Our first room (5) turned out to be a disabled room with a small bed which was positioned so far over to the wall, (obviously to give wheelchair space) there was no room for a second bedside table! The bathroom was a wet room, which was fine, but there was nowhere to put toiletries. There were no hooks on the wall to hang anything just a cupboard in the corner with hangers. No dressing table with a mirror etc, just a narrow console thing under the TV with one chair. Apart from that one chair there was nowhere to sit apart from on the bed. The room felt austere and gloomy. It was inadequately lit and painted all grey with nothing whatsoever on the walls. So….after speaking with the helpful staff, we upgraded to a deluxe room but there were still issues. The bed, mercifully, was big, and there were two bedside tables! Win, win. Still no dressing table but an extra chair, one hook on the wall and an enormous old armoire for storage. The bed was just about acceptable for us as it tended to the firm side. We didn’t find it particularly comfortable and we both had aching backs in the morning. The bathroom wasn’t good. The lighting ***** in the mirror was either faulty or just inadequate as the room was dim. The shower was, frankly, awful; over the bath and a tiny shower head which wouldn’t stay in position. The Toiletries provided were all refillable bottles bolted to the wall, the same as are found in budget hotels. No body lotion or shower cap etc, just basic shampoo, shower gel and hand gel…. The coffee tray didn’t have milk, the reason being that only fresh milk is used in the hotel. Not helpful when you don’t like black tea or coffee…..No bottled water either. Even Best Western Care hotels, (the budget option) provide bottled water. A robe and slippers were a pipe dream. Coming back to the decor…the whole hotel is painted grey apart from the decorated walls. It’s very uninspired and there’s no artwork on the walls to brighten/break it up. The corridors are especially dark but we still saw the big hole in the ceiling on the second floor! Bedroom 208 also felt gloomy, unappealing and very mismatched. The armoire was a huge wooden antique but the console table was modern black plastic, the chairs were modern velour and the bedside tables black plastic and brass. The central light fitting was a monstrosity in our opinion, and looked like a white, plastic hula hoop suspended from 3 wires. There was a lovely plaster ceiling rose intact which begged for a classy, statement light fitting. Tall airy ceilings though which was good. When I drew the curtains back in the morning, I discovered lots of plaster dropping off what was an obviously damp wall. It was a real mess and not what you expect of a 4 star establishment. There were a few stains on the carpet too. Food…we didn’t take breakfast but we did order two snacking platters. The charcuterie was fine but the “tapas” one was obviously an