La Tour Beauvoir

As other reviewers have stated, the experience is definitely staying in the oldest dungeon in France, which is why we booked. Our children really enjoyed the experience, and it was memorable for them, which was important. The experience of being given the enormous key and locking/unlocking the big front door thrilled them, and the cell doors too! The dungeon is clearly in process of being converted, so some rooms were to a very high standard (bathroom, main bedroom, twin room) while others were not (see above). The view from the tower was amazing though somewhat marred by events (above). Overall, the experience was fun, something to talk about but I wouldn't go again.

There are a few issues with this place. Firstly, parking is extremely difficult to access, involves trying to negotiate a steep curb between a bollard and a parking meter (we were in a van, so it was dicey), and I wouldn't have liked to have done this more than once (we only stayed one night). We were greeted and shown in by a lady, who also brought us (at 6.30pm!) the breakfast we had paid a lot of money for - some rather stale brioche, which was even more stale by morning. Also the jams etc in the fridge were mostly mouldy and had to be thrown away. We had paid a lot for breakfast, and were expecting delicious baked goods in the morning - this was a letdown and totally over-priced for what we got. The kitchen was quite shabby (think student bedsit) with only very basic cooking facilities (microwave, two electric plates) so really needs looking at - only really any good for making a cup of tea. The sitting room is a bit basic, but didn't spend much time in there other than to sleep in (see below). The 'exclusivity' of the tower is questionable - the tower was open quite late (it didn't seem like it was supposed to be), so we were sharing the rooftop with people milling in from downstairs (who hung around for hours on the roof), and the adjoining door to the dungeon was only a very flimsy internal door, so did not feel very secure. It had a big boot-hole in it where someone had tried to kick it in - it didn't make you feel safe. The tower was not locked until late (maybe 10pm), so there was a lot of groups/guided parties going up and down. Perhaps worse is the artist who lives in some serious squalour on the first floor - we could hear him trudging about and up/down the stairs, to go out to smoke, which did not make us feel any more secure (and in a dungeon too!). We kept meeting him going up or down the tower, and in the end we just stayed in, and kept the door locked.