I found the bed really uncomfortable -- too hard. The restaurant was so-so (usually Mercure hotels have really fine restaurants associated with them). The staff were friendly but really NOT bilngual (English/French). That was no problem for us as we speak French, but ... if you don't. Given another opportunity through the same area, we would stay in the town of Cognac itself (this hotel is really in Chateaubernard not Cognac) at one of the local non-chain hotels at the city center close to where the cognac tasting shops are. There is an outdoor pool (a bonus in warmer weather) and tons of free parking. The only English-language TV station was The Travel Channel, only on 12 hours daily. No CNN, nothing, and this was post-Asian tsunami and we were trying to keep abreast of that news and other happenings as we traveled. The view from our room was of the Leader Price discount supermarket across the busy road that runs in front of the hotel. We stayed in Cognac on our way driving from Paris to Bilbao on January 3, 2005. It's also a challenge to find one's way back to the A-10.