In fact Châtelet Métro is less than 500 feet away (or 35 seconds)!

Directions from Hotel Britannique’s to Châtelet Métro:

-> walk out of the Hotel Britannique and go left
-> take a left at the corner
-> Châtelet metro is down the block on your left

Where can you go from here?  Everywhere!

First, learn the metro.  You can figure it out in seconds, too (see how convenient this hotel is!).  In fact, Paris is so easy to get around via the metro that once you figure it out, you’ll never turn back.

     Tips for understanding the metro:

1. The lines are color coded.  You look to where you are and to where you want to go.  Follow that colored line to the end.  That is the direction in which you will want to go.  For instance, when you travel Chatelet to most tourist spots, you’ll be traveling Line 1 in the direction of  La Defense.  You disembark along the way (and, yes, there are color coded signs above every metro door to tell you how many stops before you get off).  Remember that when you’re returning to Hotel Britannique, you head back the opposite direction (Chateau de Vincennes).

NOW… for the GOOD PART!  Hotel Britannique is 35 seconds from Chatelet which is on metro line 1.  It’s the major metro line in Paris, as it goes from west to east.  And every major must-do is either directly off this metro line, or off a connecting one!

Metro Line 1 Monuments and Museums:

• The Louvre – Metro: Line 1 (exit at Palais Royal Musee du Louvre) – 2 stops from Chatelet.
  (Unless you want to do the junky souvenir walk along Rue Rivoli, in which case, you only have 1 stop at exit Louvre Rivoli).
• Tuileries Gardens (Jardin de Tuileries – where kids sail little boats in the fountains) – Metro: Line 1 (exit Tuileries) – 3 stops from Chatelet.
• Place de la Concorde - Metro : Line 1 (exit at Concorde) – 4 stops from Chatelet.
• Champs Elysees (beginning)  - Metro : Line 1 (exit at Champs Elysees Clemenceau) – 5 stops from Chatelet.
• Champs Elysees (middle)  - Metro : Line 1 (exit at Franklin D. Roosevelt) – 6 stops from Chatelet.
• Champs Elysees (middle-to-end / technically, the part you care about will it end at Arc de Triomphe, the next exit)  - Metro : Line 1 (exit at George V) – 7 stops from Chatelet.
• Arc de Triomphe – Metro : Line 1  (exit at Charles de Gaulle Etoile) – 8 stops from Chatelet.

Wait!  But how to get to the Eiffel Tower from Chatelet Metro, from Notre Dame, from Hotel DeVille, the Louvre, etc. — Take Chatelet (or anywhere on Line 1 ) to Line 4 (direction – Porte d’Orleans) and exit St-Michel to the RER (don’t worry, it’s still a metro – direction of Versailles-Rive Gauche/ Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines) and get off at Champ de Mars, unless you want to get off at Pont de l’Alma to see the Princess Diana tribute.  Unless you are staying near the Eiffel Tower, it might very well be the most difficult spot in Paris to get to unless you go by taxi… and you don’t want to stay near the Eiffel Tower because most of the area is just plain boring!

Read about the Five Hot Paris Must-Do’s Where you can walk to within 5 minutes or less directly from this Paris hotel!

Top 5 Paris Must-Do’s Near The Hotel Britannique:

1. Hotel Britannique is exactly 10 minutes from Notre Dame Cathedral and Point Zero (also known as Kilometre Zero – all highways are measured from this point; all of Paris is measured from this point… this is the very inner point of the « snail-shape » of Paris).
   (Click here to find events,  services, hours for Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris)
2. Hotel Britannique is exactly 5 minutes from Hotel de Ville, which is Paris’ City Hall.
   (Click here to find events and hours at Hôtel de Ville)
3. Hotel Britannique is less than seven blocks (less than a ten minute walk) from the Louvre – actually closer if you take another entrance besides the touristy I.M. Pei Louvre Pyramid.
   (Click here to find events, special exhibits, hours, cost, etc., for the Louvre Museum.)
4.  Hotel Britannique is 3 blocks (less than six minutes) from Pont Neuf – where lovers are seen kissing along the Seine!
5. Hotel Britannique is 3 blocks (less than six minutes) from the major department store, B.H.V., which has a hardware store in the basement (to drop off the husbands who are addicted to Home Depot), and French lingerie, clothing and household goods on the top floors.  In fact, if you love to shop, this is really the perfect hotel-close-to-department-store situation for you.

And an added plus…. the Hotel Britannique is six blocks from the Igor Stravinsky Fountain next to the Centre Pompidou, which houses the Modern Museum of Art in Paris.

To keep you informed about the actuality our beautiful capital and our hotel, or to help you prepare your next stay in Paris, don’t miss our newest articles on following link:

News – Hotel Britannique Paris.

Hotel Britannique Paris, Hotel Britannique Paris, Charming Hotel Paris, 3 star Hotel Paris

Hotel Britannique Paris, Romantic Paris Hotel, 3 star Hotel Paris

The Hotel Britannique will enthrall you with its exceptional location in the heart of Paris, only a pace away from the Seine on the Avenue Victoria, in a beautiful building dating back to 1860, surrounded by theatres and cabarets, shops and oh so Parisian bistros…

Hotel Britannique Paris, Romantic Paris Hotel, 3 star Hotel Paris

The Hotel Britannique is born, right in the heart of the 1st area of Paris. The Hotel is situated some 100 meters from the oldest square of  the right bank, 20 Avenue Victoria.

During the middle of the 19th Century, under the reign of Napoléon the III, the Baron Haussmann was hired to modernize Paris streets. Haussmann began his campaign ‘Paris embellished, Paris enlarged, Paris sanitised’ by clearing away any confusing city path, making way for domineering and uniformed straight roads. X marked the spot at Les Halles, just 400 meters from the hotel which he believed to be the ‘belly of Paris’ and endeavored to design the rest of his new city around it.

In 1854, the Avenue Victoria had seen its early days under the title of ‘Boulevard de l’Hôtel de Ville’. This would be replaced one year later by ‘Avenue Victoria’, in honor of the British Queen’s visit to the town Hall of Paris on the 23rd August, 1855. Queen Victoria had been the distinguished guest of Napoléon III at the 1855 Paris Universal Exhibition. This moment marked the beginning of the cordial agreement between the two Empires.

It is at Number 20 of this avenue of scarcely finished buildings that the Perret-Baxter family chose to establish the Hotel Britannique.

« Presented to Monsieur et Madame Perret, Hotel Britannique Paris, by a few Scarborough friends, for their kind attention during a visit to Paris ».

1870

The fall of the Second Empire – Napoléon III is denounced and the Prussians occupied Paris

1871

The Paris Commune, an attempt of proletarian revolution. Massacre of the Communards by the Versaillais. Paris burning in may.

Rivoli Street situated some 100 meters from the Hotel Britannique

1879

The construction of the first telephone network begins

1886

The celebration of the centennial of the Declaration of Independence in the United States of America.

« Liberty enlightening the world », better known as the Statue of Liberty, was offered to the States by France in 1886, as a sign of friendship to celebrate the declaration of American independence. The inauguration of the statue was celebrated on October 28th 1886 in the presence of the president of the United States, Grover Cleveland.  The idea came from the French legal expert and professor, Edward of Laboulaye in 1865, under Napoléon III:  « I will fight for liberty, I will call for the free people. I will try to glorify the republic over this country, and I will continue until that day arrives in my country ». The gift of the Statue of Liberty to a Republic, located on the other side of the Atlantic, played an important role in the fight for the maintenance of the IIIrd Republic.

The Statue of Liberty would go on to become a national symbol for the United States, representing the liberty and emancipation of man with regards to oppression.

1887

The building of the Eiffel Tower commences

1889

The celebration of the centennial of the 1789 French Revolution. Inauguration of the Eiffel Tower.

The french citizens living in USA reciprocates the offer of friendship by donating a representation of the Statue of Liberty. The statue was also given to the French at this moment in history in order to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution. One can read on the plaque « 5th JULY 1776 - 14th JULY 1789″.  It was inaugurated by the President Carnot on July the 4th 1892, 6 years after the donation of the « New York » Statue of Liberty. In 1937, during the Universal Exhibition, Bartholdi’s wish was finally granted and the positioning of the French statue was changed in order to face towards New York.

1894

The Sorbonne holds the « Congress for the restoration of the Olympic Games »

1898

A census is taken counting some 94 255 bicycles and 89 automobiles in Paris

1900

The Universal Exhibition and the Olympic Games at Paris. The first metro line appears (Vincennes – Porte Maillot). This is also the beginning of the period of progress named ‘La Belle Epoque’

1910

The great flood of Paris. Somewhat slightly elevated, the area surrounding the Hotel Britannique is left surprisingly untouched despite its close proximity to the Seine

1914

The beginning of the First World War and the end of the ‘Belle Epoque’. The Hotel Britannique opens its doors to the American-English Quakers, providing mutual aid for those in need

A part of the Hotel Britannique, dedicated to the Quakers

1920

The Christian Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers, establishes its first official french headquarters in Paris at the Hotel Brtitannique. The lasting documentation of this period tells us that the Perret-Baxters had great sympathy for the friend’s plight which was reciprocated with a commemorative plaque, still standing in the hotel lobby today.

« This Hotel, during the great war of 1914 – 1918, housed the Quaker mission of the Friends Society and gave aid to the population and reconstructed regions touched by the war. During the years 1914 – 1920 more than a million volunteers, English and American and both women and men, took part in this cause and passed through the hotel. The red and black star, the sign of the mission, was first seen in 1870-1871 by the members of a similar mission sent to France by the Quakers in order to help the victims of this war ».

The movement founded by the descendants of the Anglican Church during the 17th Century is documented in Voltaire’s ‘Philosophical Letters’, published in 1734 :

‘I believed that the doctrine and the history of such extra-ordinary people were worthy of curiosity. To find out about them, I visited one the most eminent Quakers in England (Andrew Pitt, a linen draper from Hampstead) who had been in commerce for thirty years, but had decided to limit his wealth and wants, and had retired to the countryside close to London. I went to seek him out in his retreat which was a small house, well-built and clean and without ornaments.
The Quaker was a fresh-faced old man who had never been ill, because he had never known passions or intemperance. I have never seen in my life a nobler or more engaging countenance than his. He was dressed, like all those of his religion, in a plain coat without pleats in the sides or buttons on either the pockets or the sleeves. He was wearing a large hat, with turned down brim, like our clergy. He received me with his hat on his head, and came towards me without the slightest inclination of his body, but there was more politeness in the open, humane expression on his face than in the custom of drawing one leg behind the other, and carrying the head-covering in one’s hand.’

“Our apparel is also somewhat different from that of others that it may be a perpetual warning to us not to imitate them. Others wear the badges and marks of their several dignities, and we those of Christian humility. We fly from all assemblies of pleasure, from diversions of every kind, and from places where gaming is practised; and, indeed, our case would be very deplorable, should we fill with such levities as those I have mentioned the heart which ought to be the habitation of God ».

« We never swear an oath, not even in a court of law. We think that the name of God ought not to be prostituted in the miserable squabbles of men. When we are obliged to appear before a magistrate on someone else’s account (for law suits are unknown amongst Friends) we affirm the truth by a « yes » or a « no ». The judges believe us on our simple word, whilst so many other Christians perjure themselves upon the Gospels »……

« And when, after a victory is gained, the whole city of London is illuminated; when the sky is in a blaze with fireworks, and a noise is heard in the air, of thanksgivings, of bells, of organs, and of the cannon, we groan in silence, and are deeply affected with sadness of spirit and brokenness of heart, for the sad havoc which is the occasion of those public rejoicings. »

Opposing the war, the Religious Society of Friends offered their generous services to the hospitals during the World War I, believing that God is charitable and man must be also.

1918

The end of the war. After the end of the conflict, a generation dreaming of a new world proclaims ‘never again’

1920

The beginning of the ‘Années Folles’. The utopian ideals of the 19th Century gave way to individualism and extravagance. It’s during this period that Paris saw the emergence of  art movements such as Surrealism, Dada and Art Deco. It is also at this time that the American writer Henry Miller would call the crossroads of Vavin-Raspail-Montparnasse « the navel of the world »

1924

The Olympic Games

1927

Charles Lindbergh receives a hero’s welcome after traversing the North Atlantic

1928

The Inauguration of the tennis stadium Rolland-Garros

1931

The first television show

1937

Universal Exhibition

1940

3rd of June, the Nazis bombard Paris: 250 deaths

1943

3rd of September, Allied bombardment: 400 deaths

1944

21st of April, Allied bombardment: 600 deaths. 19th of August, the liberation of Paris

Luckily Hotel Britannique’s treasure escapes the Nazi’s robbery!

During the four years of Nazi occupation, the owner of the Hotel Britannique – a descendent of the family Perret-Baxter, founders of the Hotel, had taken care to bury his valuable treasure in the ground of the hotel’s vaulted cellars. And what a treasure ! Dozens of bottles of vintage Sauternes wines aged from the beginning of the century and bottles of Bourgogne, dating from the 20s. To celebrate the liberation of Paris (and the bottle’s liberation from the ground) certain were opened and, undoubtedly, greatly appreciated. However a great number were preserved even into the 80s. The current owner of the hotel remembers to have had the great honour to taste, in 1983, a bottle of Vosnes-Romanée aged 60 years. That is an experience that one never forgets.

1947

The first fashion show (Christian Dior)

1968

The revolution of spirits tumbles Paris.

1977

8th December, the opening of the metro/train station RER Chatelet-Les Halles, the most important metro stop in the world. It is also the closest station to the Hotel.

1978

The Hotel Britannique changes hands from the Perret-Baxter family. The British born Miss Louise Claude Baxter, born the 17th May 1926, passes the Hotel over to the family Danjou. Of French nationality the Danjous originate not from Great Britain, but Brittany.

1980

The hotel closes for six months for important renovation works. A lift is installed, the bathrooms are added, each floor is rearranged and the decoration is renewed.

1985

The Hotel Britannique receives its 3rd star

2000

The hotel enters the very selective club of quality hotels selected by the Hotels with Charm Guide

2010

The Hotel Britannique is placed the 37th greatest hotel out of the 1841 hotels in Paris by Tripadvisor. A great 150th birthday present, Champagne!

Romantic Paris Hotel

Hotel Britannique Paris Romantic Paris Hotel, 3 star Hotel Paris

« We absolutely loved it! The hotel was in such a great location and was excellent value for money!  The staff were so helpful and really helped me out when I was planning to propose to my then girlfriend, now fiance!  When we got home from the Eiffel tower after getting engaged the staff had left chocolates, rose petals and champagne glasses on our bed which topped off a fantastic night. I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone! » Justin M. USA, 11 February 2011.

« The hotel was very warm, welcoming, and relaxing.  Staff did everything possible to help us enjoy all that Paris has to offer. We hope to visit again and if we do we will stay with the Hotel Britannique ». Alyssa H, 04 February 2011

« An excellent and well run hotel with welcoming service and lovely rooms. Free upgrade and gifts when we mentioned it was a wedding anniversary were very much appreciated. We would happily recommend this hotel to anyone. » Gareth B, 22 January 2011

« C’était parfait à tous points de vue : la qualité de l’accueil, la gentillesse et la compétence des jeunes filles de la réception. j’ai pu profiter pleinement des trois jours passés à Paris grâce à la qualité de l’accueil, à la possibilité d’utiliser la consigne à bagage à l’arrivée puis avant le départ, au confort et à la propreté exemplaire de la chambre 2, au délicieux petit déj, et à la proximité immédiate du métro, bref c’était parfait et je reviendrai certainement. » Françoise M, 20 January 2011

« The rooms were charming. The location was terrific. The staff was so nice and all the recommendations they made (places to see, places to eat, directions) were perfect. We will recommend it completely!  A wonderful time at a great hotel. Highly recommended! » Peggy M, 11 January 2011

« From the first time we stayed here, in 1992, our visits have always been enjoyable and the experiences pleasurable.  From the comfortable rooms to the friendly staff to the satisfying breakfast, staying at the Britanniqe makes being in Paris that much greater. Staying here is always a great experience, but it would be even better if there was just a little bar for an evening drink in that wonderful sitting room downstairs. That addition would make your charming hotel nearly perfect ». Paul R, 05 January 2011

« This was our 5th stay at the Britannique.  We love the location, the room decor, and most importantly the friendly efficient helpful staff.  I enjoyed the flowers and candy that arrived in my room for my birthday celebration.  Your front desk staff made many restaurant, taxi and other reservations for my husband and myself and our 2 traveling companions.  we have recommended the Britannique to several friends who have also enjoyed their stays there.  We will be back soon. » Lynda S, 04 January 2011

« Hotel Britannique was a wonderful experience and I would definitely go back for another visit.  The beds were comfortable and the bathroom was clean.  I also appreciated having a mini bar.  The bed linens were clean.  Something that I really liked was the lovely long window that we could open.  The view was really nice, too.  The location was superior, being within walking distance of the Louvre and Notre Dame cathedral.  Finally, I have been teaching myself French for a couple of years now and the staff at the hotel were really helpful to me in practicing my French.  Overall, the Britannique was an excellent value for the money. » Shelly W, 31 December 2010

« Hotel Britannique was extremely comfortable, the room was spotless. The staff were extremely helpful and friendly with very good English. We were very happy with our stay ». Paul B 29 December 2010

« The staff were welcoming, friendly and helpful. The room was spotless and the little honeymoon extras were a delight after a tiring and snow-interrupted journey. This hotel is well-situated and has a really lovely ambience.  Highly recommend this charming hotel. » Jacqueline C, 22 December 2010

« Great Hotel with a great location.  Rooms were small, quaint, very clean and nicely decorated.  Staff was very helpful and friendly.  Would definitely stay there again. »  Paul H, 25 November 2010

« We had an amazing stay with you. It was for our honeymoon, and could not have been better! Thank you for your hospitality!!  We found the hotel to be in the perfect location and easy to access from anywhere!  We will definitely recommend this hotel to anyone and will stay again on our next visit to Paris. » Nicola G, 14 October 2010

• A beautiful bouquet of flowers
• An appetizing fruit basket
• A delicious box of chocolates
• A ½ bottle of Moet and Chandon brut champagne
• A special romantic decoration of the bedroom

VALENTINE’S DAY 2011 -  ROMANTIC SPECIAL OFFER

For instance : package double standard

1 or 2 nights : 210 € per room & per night, romantic package  included

3 nights and more : 200 € per room & per night, romantic package included

Romantic package :

- upgrade

- generous breakfast

- floral decoration (rose petales, bouquet of flowers)

- bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne (1/2)

- a small surprise, romantic present

- a fruit basket

To take advantage of our special Valentine’s Day 2011, click the little heart