Opera Cadet Hotel

There are, let's guess, about 100 ugly buildings total in central Paris, and Hotel Opera Cadet occupies one of them. While its neighbors are limestone beauties from the turn of the last century, Opera Cadet is a patently '80s/early '90s concrete structure, with a laminate wood check-in desk and distinctly dated lobby furniture to match. Red and black pleather sofas and chairs look more like they belong in the waiting area of a dentist office than in the lobby of a hotel in Paris. An old wood piano and a vague nod to Art Nouveau style comes to the rescue: there are flowery stained glass ceiling vaults, rose-colored marble columns, Erte prints, and glass cases displaying vintage French perfumes, like Jour Et Nuit and 1905 Detaille. These period touches are offset by the neighboring display of decades-old hotel merchandise -- notepads, pens, soap dishes, matchbooks, mugs, umbrellas.The datedness issue is not surprising since the hotel, before its June 2018 acquisition by a new hotel group, had the same owners for 25 years. The new owners plan on making renovations in the near future. Nearly all of the hotel's clientele are from outside of France: the U.S., Spain, South America, Italy, and the U.K. Most guests are couples and families (who can comfortably occupy Opera Cadet's four-person rooms), and some business travelers stay here, as well. Guests tend to choose the hotel for its location, which is convenient to metro stations and tourist attractions.

The property is situated on a cute closed-to-traffic street near other hotels, and a straight shot north from the city center; it is walking distance from the Gare du Nord (13 minutes on foot), Sacre Couer (18 minutes), and the Louvre (22 minutes). The Cadet metro station (line 7) is not even one block from the hotel. This Opera Garnier area is near the very bottom of Montmartre, and all around are boulangeries, creperies, coffee shops, and other hotels. The drive to or from Charles de Gaulle Airport takes about 35 minutes, or 50 minutes by public transit.

Like the lobby, the rooms here are nothing special to look at. Most have a dated burnt-orange color scheme and unattractive blonde wood laminate furniture, including long built-in desks and the bedside table/headboards. Some rooms have pleather club chairs by the window. Nearly floor-to-ceiling window bring in lots of natural light and framed prints of flowers, waterscapes, and Monet reproductions add a bit of personality.On the plus side, rooms are a bit bigger than what is average for central Paris hotels; Standard units start at 172 square feet and Superiors and Suites go up in size from there. All rooms have flat-screen TVs, air-conditioning, safes, minibars, free coffee and tea, and free Wi-Fi. Two bottles of water are free upon check-in. Standard rooms come in twin or double configurations, but larger beds are often two twins pushed together.The white-tiled bathrooms have shower/tub combos (the new owners plan to convert most of these to walk-in showers during upcoming renovations), plus heated towel racks, magnifying mirrors, and basic toiletries. Upgraded rooms and suites add bathrobes and slippers. Suites are named after classical composers like Chopin and Vivaldi, and feature two bedrooms and one-and-a-half bathrooms with a jetted tub in the main bathroom.Triple and quadruple rooms (with actual beds, not sofabeds) are available, and there are three rooms are accessible to people in wheelchairs.Street-facing rooms potentially pick up a good amount of noise throughout the day and night. On our visit, an extremely loud middle-of-the-night laundry delivery kept us up for hours. Another issue we encountered was the strong smell of cigarette smoke wafting through the vents. We also couldn't get the TV to turn on, so opened the remote to find corroded batteries. The doorknob to our room was close to falling off.

Unlike most hotels in central Paris, most of Opera Cadet's room rates do include breakfast. The buffet-style breakfast is surprisingly extensive, with scrambled eggs, sausage, crepes, baguettes, and viennoseries. (Bread comes from Maison Dupuy, a boulangerie on the same block as the hotel.) Sliced meats, wedges of cheese, and milk and cereal are available. There are a variety of jams in individual glass jars, plus wrapped packets of Camembert and Nutella, fruit, Evian, and apple and orange juices.Guests can dine in the indoor breakfast room, an adjacent glassed-in conservatory, or, if it's nice outside, the garden itself. The lovely back garden is one of the hotel's best features; it has lots of plants, a fountain, and several tables and chairs for a peaceful breakfast or drink. The hotel's bar opens in the late afternoon and stays open until midnight. A small business center in the lobby provides access to a computer and printer, and Wi-Fi is free throughout the hotel. Three air-conditioned, Wi-Fi-enabled meeting rooms can accommodate up to 20 people each.