Quality... "Suites" you say? Only in my dreams!

This place has nothing in common with the real Quality Suites in Cocoa Beach, where I stop when I drive between Miami Beach and Saint Augustine (I need two days to cover 325 miles on A1A...), where you get two real big rooms separated by a wall with a door, two big TVs, a couch in one room, a reclining club chair with ottoman in the other one, etc., etc.

What they call "suite" in Paris is in fact a room twice the size of the average closet they call "single room" in Europe, but still half the size of the room I had at the Clarion Convention Center in Las Vegas a few months ago... for one third of the French price!

I got "suite" 807 on Saturday December 10 and Sunday 11, 2011 on the top floor.

A small hall leads to a reasonably small bathroom on the left with toilet and a shower a bit bigger than the mini shower I have at my usual Lux Hotel (with no luxury at all...) Above a round sink, a nice wooden shelf holds my Delta amenity kit (salvaged from the time when amenity kits were in real leather twenty years ago...) and my Sharper Image alarm radio with 20 soothing sounds, indispensable for sleeping in budget hotels all over Europe and South America!

The room has a queen bed with about 15 inches between the bed and the external wall, and another 15 inches between the bed and a big closet with sliding doors. A slightly bigger space has a wooden cube with a 20 inch LCD TV on top, a bigger cube where I put my big suitcase and a luggage rack where I put my carry on. Behind the TV, by the window, there is a small Spartan club chair without arm rests, slightly softer than a stone bench in a park... Next to it, a nice desk with a Spartan wooden chair, identical to those of IBIS hotels but black instead of green. On the desk, there is a plateau with an electric coffee pot, 4 doses of Nescafe, 2 of tea, 4 doses of sugar and 2 mini containers of milk.

Next to the desk, at the angle, a big closet with a big door over a wheel hides a small kitchenette containing a frig, 2 counter top stoves and a microwave oven. Next to them, there is a sink and shelves with dishes, glasses and silverware. On the street side, two doors give access to a small balcony over Rue de Tolbiac, with view of the François Mitterrand library on the right.

Finally, there is an electric heater next to the desk (very useful in Paris...) and an AC over the door, similar to those that you see in many hotels in Montevideo or in Punta del Este, Uruguay. Seldom needed in Paris, except for two or three weeks every year!

Because of the time change (six hours between Miami and Paris), I couldn't try the breakfast, so I had a coffee and milk in the room before going out and having a delicious butter croissant I got in a bakery a couple of blocks away, on rue Patay. There is a very good bakery a corner of the hotel that I know since 1982 but it was closed on Sunday. I had a blood test Monday morning so I had no breakfast either the second day.

Normal price for this room called "suite" (in fact a small studio of about 20 square meters with a small kitchenette in a closet) is between €90 and €140 for 1 or 2 persons, depending on the day of the week. Add about 50% and you will have the price in US $. This is an excellent value for a three stars hotel in Paris, considering that most 2 stars hotels charge between 70 and 120 Euros for a closet without AC, without frig and no microwave of course, or even a coffee pot!

If you don't have big luggage, you may take bus 351 at Roissy Pole (free CDGVAL shuttle between terminal 1 -United Airlines-, Roissy Pole and terminal 2 -American Airlines-). This bus leaves every half hour and will cost you 3 tickets. Take the precaution to buy a pack of ten tickets or you will pay twice the price on the bus! You may buy a pack of 10 tickets either at the same Roissy Pole train ticket counters or at the bus information, both in the same Roissy Pole.

Bus 351 is empty when it leaves but it will get as full as a sardine can as soon as it leaves the expressway, starting with Aulnay, especially on Saturdays, when people go to the market with big carts! However, it will be empty again by the time you reach a stop called "Pyrénées-Dr. Netter" (the first stop after "Porte de Vincennes", almost at the end of the line). Get off at this "Pyrénées-Dr. Netter", walk a few steps, cross the perpendicular street and take bus 64 to the hotel. There is a stop right at the door, after you pass the "Tolbiac-Bibliothèque Francois Mitterrand" stop after crossing the Seine.

WARNING: there are two bus stops with almost identical names: "Tolbiac-Bibliothèque Francois Mitterrand", right by the Seine river, and another one called "Francois Mitterrand" three blocks farther. I got off at the first one, by the river, and I had to walk three blocks with my luggage before realizing that there is a stop by the door of this Quality Suites of Paris-Tolbiac called… “Bibliothèque Francois Mitterrand"!

After you leave your luggage, the same bus 64 in the same direction will take you to Place d'Italie, where you will find a nice shopping mall and plenty of restaurants on Avenue des Gobelins. I usually go to “Epsilon”. Another bus at the hotel door, number 62, will take you to the heart of Paris XV district and all the way to Porte de Saint Cloud.

If you take the RER (regional subway) at CDG airport, you will have to change to line 14 and get off at "Metro" station "Bibliothèque Francois Mitterrand". Take "SORTIE PONT DE TOLBIAC" with a lift all the way up to the street level. As you exit, you will see the "Quality Suites" sign on the roof half a block on your left.

Considering that most two stars hotels charge between 70 and 120 Euros per day to sleep in a closet without a frig, nor microwave and not even a coffee pot (and, of course NO AC!) as I already said, this is an EXCELLENT Value for Money if you pay with Euros (between 90 € AND 140 €, that's between $130 and $200 a day a/o December 2011) and an outstanding value if you pay with Choice Hotels Rewards points as I did.