Clos Saint Martin

I was on a family trip to Normandy, staying in Caen for three nights. We had the Blue Room and the Green Room and everyone loved this small, beautiful hotel. It's in a renovated 17th and 18th century building. Each of our rooms was very large (bedroom, bathroom, and a closet / dressing room), impeccably clean, quiet, and comfortable. The rooms face a beautiful courtyard instead of the street. Wi-Fi was very good. There's ample paid parking nearby (free overnight and on Sunday). The included breakfast spread was terrific, including locally grown pears and local cheese, meats, and more. I'd love to stay here again! Caen is a wonderful city to visit in its own right and is also an excellent base for Bayeux and the D-Day beaches.

Quaint little hotel situated behind and unassuming door which leads into a courtyard…. We had the pink room on the third floor ….do not even consider this room if you are not too fit!! Very comfortable with a massive bed and a good shower in the bathroom….. young lady looked after as well… she spoke good English….but was obviously pleased that one person in our party spoke good French! Really enjoyed the breakfast ….with individual baskets of breads, and good jams. Only down side was the price….. which I felt was a little pricey but would definitely book again on our next time in Caen

Central location, parking on the street or in public subterranean parking at about 500m distance. Easy self-check-in. Full of character old building at the back of a courtyard. Our Superior Double Room was huge and nicely decorated. Large, comfortable bed, ancient tv that did not work. The breakfast was as poor as you can find at a two-star establishment. Even the yogurt was offered in one, sweet variety, only.

Pro- it's quaint in an old lady kind of way. It was comfortable. ( see cons) Good location. Cons- the water is not hot enough. The shower doesn't drain. The "breakfast" was bad. Very few choices and not fresh. The water pot was not cleaned from the last guest. The room is cold.

We had a wonderful stay at Clos Saint Martin for 4 nights at the end of Sept. Cynthia is amazing---she greeted us after our long day of travel and got us settled in our rooms, best parking, and recommendations for dinner nearby. Cynthia continued to be so warm and welcoming throughout out stay---even helping us out with directions on the street when we ran into her out walking! The breakfast is fantastic---the best bread and yogurt we had in all of our three total weeks in France. The rooms were large, comfortable with excellent baths and showers. The large Friday market is just outside the door. We would definitely recommend to others and stay again---Caen was a great base for exploring Normandy.

The pros: The location is in an old, historic type of building so you actually feel like you're living it. Also the bread in the morning is the real deal - which is worth a lot, especially if you can almost never make it to France (each breakfast in France with real French baguettes and butter is sacred!!!). The texture is the real-French texture where it's a bit chewy and stretchy on the inside, rather than more uniform. Honestly, even upscale hotels we've stayed at in Paris and Annecey often don't have bread this good (and you **cannot** find it in the US, even in big cities like Boston). For us in France, the breakfast baguette is one of the highlights of the day - with French butter (SO much better than in the US!), amazing French preserves (much better here than elsewhere), hot chocolate or coffee - they also had good fresh cut melon... When we travel in France we base a lot of our hotel choice on the breakfast because a good breakfast is first of all, not to be missed in France and second of all, carries us through the day and makes it less urgent to need a "real" meal later - which also saves money. The other pro was the staff - super friendly and kind. Be aware: The one thing I will say about this place is that the pillows were kind of hard (mattresses were great though), be aware that there is no AC (not a big deal most of the year, but a little warm for us even with a fan on the nights of 80-degree August days; also, you'll need to sleep with windows open so bring an eye-mask and maybe a white noise maker), parking in the area is not obvious - nor is driving, as it's in an area with lots of pedestrian-only streets that weren't super obviously marked to my foreign eyes - the hotel itself is also not well-marked (you must approach the big green doors - only then can you see that there is a small sign on the side of the door frame) - and be sure that you have a phone that works in France because it's not super obvious how to find the keys and all of that without connecting to the manager, David, but my phone wouldn't make calls in France so I basically couldn't do that. I did figure it out eventually though, even without that. These are the kinds of things that younger travelers can probably handle no problem, but they were a little rougher for me at age 42 arriving in the evening exhausted from other travel and without all my wits about me.