My party stopped off in Rouen half way through a trip from the South of France to the Channel Crossing in the North.

The aim was to choose a hotel to stay at on the way up, Rouen had been our intended stopping point and we left the main road to be greeted by a plethora of hotels.

Slightly hidden amongst the big hotels that litter the road we encountered was the charming Campanile.

The staff had a basic grasp of English, the only sour point was that we couldn't eat in the hotel restaurant because it was too busy (there was two parties of four), and thus we were told restaurants were a five minute drive away, but they weren't even a two minute walk away. We decided to take our cars back so that we could all drink, which was a bit of a pain.

The hotel was a bit of a ghost town even upon our return late at night. I like that sort of peace and quiet but it might not be everybody's cup of tea. I used the free Wi-Fi (a perk offered by many of the hotels along the road) which was remarkably quick.

The breakfast buffet was ample, not worth the 9 euros though. We left the Campanile feeling much better than when we arrived, and made the crossing feeling a lot better than we did after driving down and stopping at a Formule 1!