Coming from France, the best way to get to Guernsey is by boat, and specifically the French port of Saint-Malo requiring a night stop so I booked a night in the Mercure Hotel Balmoral, somewhere we have stayed before for a single night.
We arrived at the underground car park entrance as i have done before after several hours driving through rush hour traffic. It's quite difficult to find being at the back side of the property from the entrance; there's a late afternoon thunderstorm with heavy rain ongoing. Pressing the well hidden intercom button to request the car park entrance to be opened the receptionist refuses to let me in as they need to know my room number. Because of the poor audio quality and volume it takes several attempts to hear and understand fully; if i don't have a room number i need to go to reception to checkin first, before they open the gate. Even though reception is on the other side of the building and all the while with the rain coming in through my car window - i'm getting soaked. I abandon the car there by the intercom, getting even wetter to checking at the front of the hotel asking that she lets me into the parking and then return back to the car.
Pressing the intercom button again i speak to the same receptionist that checked me in 90 seconds ago who then proceeds to ask me whether i really want to pay the 15euro parking fee. And am i really sure. And it's 15euros, and it will be added to the bill. All very frustrating and un-necessary. Its one thing to have a rule to get a job done, but this certainly isn't it.
The car park has maybe 12 spaces, and they're all very tight for most modern cars. It does say parking under reservation but we never have.
Straight up to our room, upgraded to a privilege room due to my ALL status which means bath robes, a coffee machine and a few free soft drinks in the minibar. The bed is at one end, a desk and storage area at the other, and a bathroom with a walk-in shower.
The room and amenties are adequate for a night stop, but its already a bit stuffy and warm; the aircon is set to 16C and is blowing out warm air. The outside temperature is 25C and still the thunder is trying its best to entertain us. And failing We do have a balcony but opening the door to get some kind of air circulation only permits the rain to enter.
We waited a few hours for the rain to stop but showed no side of abating so our planned trip into the old town for dinner is aborted. The hotel has no restaurant (i knew in advance) and MrsFr didn't fancy venturing out in the wet so i looked for something to bring back to the hotel.
Just around the corner was "Bar a Naan" which looked like just what we needed.
So, a lamb massala and chicken massala and couple of naans duly ordered i went back to the bar to eat.
MrsFr had already ordered the drinks. My welcome drink voucher was only valid for a single 25cl beer and her favourite G+T... Apparently all the gin was finished this morning - well, that was convenient - they only had 1 bottle of gin? (many other questions spring to mind). ALL properties "generosity" with their welcome drinks, especially in France, is already well discussed elsewhere on FT; Is MrsFr not welcome enough to get a drink? Are they really that tight for single beer? If it wasn't for the rain we wouldn't have bothered even with mine. Anyway...
The food was ok. Not bad per se, just not very flavoursome. I was asked when ordering, once they had heard my english accent, how spicy i wanted it. "French" spice or more, i asked for more. Maybe they just forgot. It filled a hole.
On the way back from Bar a Naan, i had noticed a homeless sleeper in an alleyway just beside the hotel and after a few mins went back to offer some Naans we had ordered but were not going to eat. A little disturbed though to find they seemed to be a casually dressed lady and raised a few alarm bells. Completely unsure of the situation but also aware of how it could go quite badly quite quickly and on discussing with MrsFr we decided to go back together to check on her welfare. On hearing our discussion another lady in reception interrupted us to say in fact she had already called the Police Municipal, the Pompiers and discussed it with the hotel staff.
The police duly arrived and helped her away in a very poor state; it may have been alcohol related. This is all a long way around to say that we then spent 3+ hours talking with the lady we met in the hotel. Turns out she is a retired German and English teacher and lives in an apartment block next to the hotel. Spent a nice few hours discussing all sorts of subjects. We really enjoy these kind of ad-hoc personal experiences. As mentioned by another Trip Reporter recently, it makes the trip to engage with others.
The bar and reception area
Time for bed as we had an early start, it's much later than we planned.