French hotels offer curfew ‘night out’
Some hotels are offering nights out past 21:00 including dinner and a room, for the same price as the fine for breaking curfew
In Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon and Marseille hotel restaurants have come up with a clever plan to side step Covid curfew restrictions in France.
They are offering customers deals including dinner and a room for a bargain price. Then, as they are confined in one building for the night, customers get the now-rare treat of staying in the hotel restaurant beyond 21:00, without feeling they need to rush home.
Louis Solanet, manager of the four-star Hôtel Rochechouart near Pigalle in Paris told new source Le Figaro: “Instead of crying about how difficult things are, we are looking for solutions. We realised that we have the right, if a customer slept at the hotel, to prolong their dinner.
“We are offering a double room from €60 per person, an attractive price for an establishment like ours, with the obligation for the customer to eat in our restaurant. But we have chosen not to impose a menu or a minimum spend.
“It is the freedom to choose that made the offer a hit. We were even a little overwhelmed at first by how successful it was.”
Now, other hotels, including chains, are planning to introduce similar models. Accor is working on a similar concept and Novotel is testing a dinner-and-a-room deal in a hotel near Paris.
We take a look at some of the best curfew deals around France.
Paris: Dinner and a room for the same price as curfew fine
Le Terrass” in Montmartre is a four-star hotel offering dinner and a room for €135 – the same price as the fine for breaking curfew rules.
During the day the hotel restaurant is open for lunch to all customers - but, in the evening, it is only open to customers staying in the hotel.
Two customers enjoying a meal with a view over Paris told Le Figaro they saw the deal as “a way to enjoy ourselves and support the hotel sector”.
Lyon: Luxury accommodation and pizza
In the Confluence neighbourhood in Lyon the MOB Hôtel is offering a “runaway” (fugue) package for guests.
Included is a room for the night, breakfast, late checkout and two pizzas in the restaurant or as room service all for the price of €129 – even less than a curfew fine.
Marseille: A seaside escape
Les Bords de Mer Hôtel is, as the name suggests, next to the sea in a 1930s building designed by architect Yvann Pluskwa,
The hotel is offering dinner and a room for around €150 for one person or €200 for two, depending on what customers order to eat. Guests might also want to splash out on a cocktail with a sunset view over the Mediterranean.
The owners told Le Figaro: “We initially thought of this offer for locals, so that they can escape a little even during the curfew.”
Strasbourg: Historical hotel now open
The Hôtel des Vosges opposite the central station in Strasbourg reopened last week after two years of renovation work to update the 19th century building and its 1930s decor.
The hotel is including some of its best rooms in its curfew offer for customers, as well as dinner restaurant Brasserie K and breakfast, all for €118 for two people.
Qui dîne dort: What does it mean?
The Hôtel Rochechouart is using the play on words qui dîne dort to describe their curfew offer.
This comes from the expression qui dort, dîne, which today has come to mean to fall asleep in order to forget you are hungry.
However, it is said to have origins in the 17th century when hotel owners receiving travellers who wished to stay the night would ask them to buy dinner in their establishments so they could earn more money.
Related stories
Restaurants say French Covid curfew will force closure
France may start curfew at 19:00 as Covid-19 intensifies
President Macron to make Covid speech tonight
