5
Accessible hotel close to centre of Paris
I chose this hotel on our visit to Paris because it was a step-free hotel with a lift and only about 20 minutes walk/scoot from the Louvre. There are other accessible hotels but I had other criteria
a) There were three of us so I needed a suite with a separate sleeping area
b) It has a really good breakfast! With everything you can think of - a good start to the day
c) Everywhere in the hotel is fully accessible (but see point about the lift below!)
d) It had a lift - BUT - I didn't check the size of the lift - it is incredible small and narrow - my mobility scooter wouldn't fit in - thankfully I have a folding mobility scooter and can stand for a very short time so we were able to use the lift. A powerchair or wheelchair with a good turning circle "might" fit in.
But there are ground floor rooms available so you might want to book a ground floor room.
I need to use my scooter all the time. I can stand and walk 3 or 4 steps (eg to a toilet) but can't walk otherwise. So I can safely say that, apart from the lift being small, this hotel is fully accessible. There are internal slopes and no steps, the breakfast room is accessible as well. There is plenty of space in the reception area (so I was able to reverse my scooter into the lift and it just folded up inside the lift then!). It's an autofolding scooter. The corridors on the higher floors were wide enough to get round corners and get into the room and although our room wasn't huge there was enough space to use the scooter right up to the bathroom.
We stayed in room 407 which was a junior suite. You enter into the sitting area with a sofa bed, then go through that to the bedroom area, which leads to the large bathroom. This wasn't an adapted bathroom so if you need an adapted bathroom you'd need to ask for the accessible room. It was fine for me and had a large walk in wet room type shower with no step.
Staff were lovely and friendly.
The Hotel is on Rue de la Michodiere, just of Rue du 4 Septembre. It's important you approach the hotel from Rue 4 Septembre, and NOT from the other end - you can go round the block on the main pavements to reach Rue 4 Septembre - the reason being that the pavement at the Rue 4 Septembre end, on the side of the hotel is fine. The pavement at the other end of the road is not safe for a scooter as it's too narrow and slopes. But we had no problems and just accessed it from Rue 4 Septembre.
The other reason for choosing it was it is quite central. It is only about 20 minutes walk/scoot to the Louvre - but keep to the main road pavements! Which are wider and smoother.
Also there are a couple of bus stops 2 to 3 minutes walk from the hotel and we used buses a lot - mainly to save my scooter battery. We used the Bonjour RATP App - under settings you can select bus only and "accessibility" and it will only show you bus routes that are fully accessible. This was great. All the buses have automatic ramps - but not all the bus stops are accessible - which is why you need to select the accessible option on the app so it will only show you accessible bus routes. It took two bus rides from there to the Eiffel tower but it was a real treat because we went past a lot of famous sites along the way - quite a tour in itself.
We used buses exclusively as the metro is not accessible. People are all really helpful and friendly on the buses if you have a problem (I got a wheel stuck on one occasion!). There are spaces for wheelchairs on the bus when you enter in the middle via the ramp and there is a button there to press to tell the driver when you want to get off so he can extend the ramp.
I chose this hotel on our visit to Paris because it was a step-free hotel with a lift and only about 20 minutes walk/scoot from the Louvre. There are other accessible hotels but I had other criteria
a) There were three of us so I needed a suite with a separate sleeping area
b) It has a really good breakfast! With everything you can think of - a good start to the day
c) Everywhere in the hotel is fully accessible (but see point about the lift below!)
d) It had a lift - BUT - I didn't check the size of the lift - it is incredible small and narrow - my mobility scooter wouldn't fit in - thankfully I have a folding mobility scooter and can stand for a very short time so we were able to use the lift. A powerchair or wheelchair with a good turning circle "might" fit in.
But there are ground floor rooms available so you might want to book a ground floor room.
I need to use my scooter all the time. I can stand and walk 3 or 4 steps (eg to a toilet) but can't walk otherwise. So I can safely say that, apart from the lift being small, this hotel is fully accessible. There are internal slopes and no steps, the breakfast room is accessible as well. There is plenty of space in the reception area (so I was able to reverse my scooter into the lift and it just folded up inside the lift then!). It's an autofolding scooter. The corridors on the higher floors were wide enough to get round corners and get into the room and although our room wasn't huge there was enough space to use the scooter right up to the bathroom.
We stayed in room 407 which was a junior suite. You enter into the sitting area with a sofa bed, then go through that to the bedroom area, which leads to the large bathroom. This wasn't an adapted bathroom so if you need an adapted bathroom you'd need to ask for the accessible room. It was fine for me and had a large walk in wet room type shower with no step.
Staff were lovely and friendly.
The Hotel is on Rue de la Michodiere, just of Rue du 4 Septembre. It's important you approach the hotel from Rue 4 Septembre, and NOT from the other end - you can go round the block on the main pavements to reach Rue 4 Septembre - the reason being that the pavement at the Rue 4 Septembre end, on the side of the hotel is fine. The pavement at the other end of the road is not safe for a scooter as it's too narrow and slopes. But we had no problems and just accessed it from Rue 4 Septembre.
The other reason for choosing it was it is quite central. It is only about 20 minutes walk/scoot to the Louvre - but keep to the main road pavements! Which are wider and smoother.
Also there are a couple of bus stops 2 to 3 minutes walk from the hotel and we used buses a lot - mainly to save my scooter battery. We used the Bonjour RATP App - under settings you can select bus only and "accessibility" and it will only show you bus routes that are fully accessible. This was great. All the buses have automatic ramps - but not all the bus stops are accessible - which is why you need to select the accessible option on the app so it will only show you accessible bus routes. It took two bus rides from there to the Eiffel tower but it was a real treat because we went past a lot of famous sites along the way - quite a tour in itself.
We used buses exclusively as the metro is not accessible. People are all really helpful and friendly on the buses if you have a problem (I got a wheel stuck on one occasion!). There are spaces for wheelchairs on the bus when you enter in the middle via the ramp and there is a button there to press to tell the driver when you want to get off so he can extend the ramp.
