Coming from Geneva, we decided to stay on the French side in Bourg-en-Bress, hotels there being a lot less expensive than in Geneva. The Best Western did not disappoint. We had reserved the room the night before, and our room was ready for us when we arrived early at 3 PM. Reception was very friendly in spite of our language differences. Neither my French nor her English were very good. But we managed to clear up the parking situation. 10 euro's for a place in the hotel's garage, or 2 euro's in a public spot in front of the hotel (from 7PM till 9:30AM parking is free). We chose the latter. The building is old, and has a wonderful large staircase with uneven wooden and creaky stairs. The elevator is very small. Our party consisted of three adults, and we had to take several trips to get ourselves and our luggage to the second floor. Note that the elevator stops between floors, so you still have to lug the luggage up or down a flight of stairs. The room was delightful and airy. Good beds, tall windows that opened onto the Place Bernard and a view of the old cathedral, marble mantle and fireplace. Two closets, desk, tv, mini bar, a "welcome" small container of Pringles. The bathroom was large, good tiles, bath and hand shower. The bath is rather narrow. The reason I'm giving this hotel only 4 stars is that the hot water was only tepid. When mentioned to the receptionist, she seemed surprised and would inform the manager. I also found the buffet breakfast not quite up to the price of 13 euro's per person. It has some nice extra's, but the eggs and ham were rather dried out. Nice choice of teas and little teapots. Tiny dishes for your jams; there were applesauce and hard boiled eggs, fresh fruits, croissants and cereals.
When we arrived in the afternoon, Place Bernard was bustling with people, sitting around the large fountain. Church bells ringing. Small streets full of little boutiques and people shopping. But at night all is quiet. We slept very well!

Generous rooms, a delightful view over Place Bernard, and enormous buffet breakfast - a great place to stay a day or three on the long drive to Paris (or Geneva). Beautifully 'olde' in the best way, staff very helpful and right in the centre of this typically French town - cafes, restaurants abound. Recommended.

I stayed here a number of years back and it's one of the few hotels that I fondly remember my impressions upon arriving. It captures the French charm and style of a 100 years back.

Good value and room, nice staff and a great restaurant.

Best Western's "Hôtel de France" in Bourg-en-Bresse, on the way to the French Alps from Paris, is an old fashioned hotel like the "Grand Hôtel" depicted by Marcel PROUST in "A l'Ombre des jeunes filles en fleur", one of the first books I read in French when I entered the Sorbonne in 1964.

It has big rooms, the size of Clarion rooms in the US, which is HUUUUGE by European standards, where you pay $150 to sleep in a closet without AC and without a refrigerator, especially in London! Floors are nineteenth century style, covered with rugs, which don't prevent some wood crackling here and there as you walk around.

Room 353, which I had on my first visit, Thursday June 14, 2012, was big and sober: a queen bed, two night stands, a refrigerator with a glass door, a small desk and a narrow but comfortable club chair in which the average American would hardly fit. There is an LCD TV with cable channels and a big digital clock on the lower right side but the room is so big that I could hardly read it from bed. Of course, I'm no longer in my twenties, which happened many, many, many moons ago... It has an old chimney without style that has been totally covered. Two small windows in the room and a third one in the bathroom open over the square where you park your car.

Together with the frig., this room has a very efficient AC, with a digital temperature selector that works perfectly well. During the day, I set it for 20° C but I had to increase it to 24° C at night because, although it is at the other end of this big room, I felt the air right in bed.

You must expect to pay at least 250 € for this type of room in Europe, but you will get it for much cheaper if you reserve longtime ahead as I always do (August 16, 2011, I reserved the Best Western Palmgarten in Frankfurt for this coming June 26, 2012!), and if you take what they call a "Soirée Etape", which will give you the room + dinner + a HUGE BREAKFAST BUFFET the next day for only 101.90 € all included! With a Euro at only $1.25 currently, that's an absolute bargain! Of course, the Euro-US$ exchange rate goes up and down daily, like a mad yo-yo!

As for the bathroom, it was four times bigger than the one I had at the Quality Suites Rue de Tolbiac in Paris a week before, with the second whitest bathtub I've ever seen, together with Best Western's Palmgarten in Frankfurt (which no longer belongs to Best Western chain, unfortunately, but where I will go anyway next week if it still exists and if they honor my reservation at its low rate!), for which I also posted a review right here in Trip Advisor. Unlike the narrow Jacuzzi tub of Sheraton Ejido's suite 901, this traditional tub in Bourg-en-Bresse was large and wide with a flat floor. CAUTION: just as the big tub in Frankfurt, there are no asperities on the bottom, so you will be cautious because it is so clean that it may be slippery and there is no bar you may hold to in this bathroom! Also, there is what we call a "telephone shower" in France, with a long hose. However, there is no curtain at all, so you will wet the floor no matter how cautious you may be.

Like in most modern hotels, the door key is a slim card that you can take with you all the time, unlike old fashioned keys with a big plaque that you have to leave at the reception and get back every time you go out, as I have to do now at the Ibis Annecy-Cran Gevrier where I am currently spending a few days.

There is a public parking right at the door, free from 7 p.m. to 9 am and from 12 noon to 2 p.m. (lunch time is sacred in France!).

Between 9 am and 12 noon or 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., you will pay one Euro per hour or a minimum of 0.50 € for half an hour. Make sure you start putting coins from no later than 9:15 am and don't forget to display the ticket under the windshield.

Yes, I said "coins" because, unlike the stupid system (let's not be afraid to use the appropriate word: STUPID!) adopted in Paris, where you must first buy a card in order to pay for the parking while they give you a ticket (which is utterly dishonest!), in Bourg-en-Bresse they were intelligent (and honest!) enough to put both systems: card AND coins! Just have a few coins of 0.50 and 1 € in your pocket and have peace in mind.

Dinner included in the "Soirée Etape" is served in a good restaurant called "Place Bernard" in premises but managed separatedly from the hotel, for which I will write a review shortly. Naturally, you will have to take the cheapest set menu they offer (here it was 20 € at noon and 23 € for dinner) and you must pay for drinks. I took a so-so 1/4 liter of Mâcon white wine for 8 €, which is twice as much as I usually pay for this kind of wine, but good wines were too expensive for a simple professor teaching French almost for free in a US University.

Indian food lovers may try a place called MUMTAZ MAHAL on 26 BD DE BROU, just a couple of blocks behind the hotel, where they offer a set menu for lunch under ten Euros plus drinks. However, I have NOT tried this place yet; I expect to do so on my way back to Paris next week before flying to Frankfurt.

Finally, I saw here one of the biggest breakfast buffets I've ever seen and only the Sheraton Four Points Ejido in Montevideo (where you must pay $16 for breakfast!) is slightly bigger. Together with three types of cereals and three types of juice, coffee, tea, etc., you will have the best "petit pain au chocolat" (chocolate croissant but in a different shape) I've ever had, plus a delicious French baguette, butter croissants, normal ham, dried ham, scrambled eggs and bacon, fruits, jams, yogurts and, most of all, two types of cheese: a very good "Comté" (like Swiss cheese but with more flavor) and a small creamy goat cheese called "Petit Bressois" which was delicious. Unfortunately, the best cheese companion (a good red wine) was absent, but I enjoyed it just the same!

If you drive from Paris to the Alps the smart way, don't miss a stop at this great place. But if you are the kind of person driving "pied au plancher" on the expressway ("foot on the floor", with the accelerator glued all the way down...), forget what I just said!