Hôtel Magenta 38 by Happyculture

We stayed at Magenta 38 for 5 nights. The standard room was quite basic with limited storage, but had a very comfortable bed and pillow, a free safe and tea and coffee making facilities. There were also 2 USB ports. The bathroom was very clean with new looking facilities and nice white towels. Yes, water pressure for the shower was a bit low but wasn’t a huge problem. To work the hairdryer, you have to hold in a button which is tedious and the cable was too short to comfortably dry hair in front of a mirror. The lift was small and slow but considerably better than walking to the 6th floor. There are water bottles and chilled water provided free of charge in reception. Reception staff members were always present - they were pleasant but could have been more welcoming and security conscious. It felt as though anyone could walk in from the street at any time and access the rooms. A couple of days into our stay, we discovered a bookshelf at the back of the reception/seating area where there were maps of Paris showing all the popular spots to visit and all the metro stations - it would have been very useful to have had this at the beginning - maybe staff members could point these out to guests on arrival. Breakfast was good with several choices of a variety of things e.g. meats, cheeses, cereals etc. A plate of pancakes came out each morning but unfortunately were left to go cold. Disappointing. Location is excellent - 4 minute walk from the metro and within reach of numerous restaurants. The general architecture, grand buildings with balconies and railings and huge arched gateways, is fantastic, although some areas are spoilt somewhat by widespread graffiti. A nice area that we found was past the metro towards the square and down towards the Porte Saint-Martin (itself worth a look) - some very nice restaurants were there. It’s also just a few minutes walk from the canal but we really didn’t find it to be particularly special. Most of the restaurants seemed to have very similar menus and prices. They were mostly all very charming and lovely inside, and the staff were all very nice and very tolerant of our limited French. There is also a supermarket on the way to the metro which looks like a small convenience store on the outside but is like the tardis on the inside. It stocks everything. As well as the usual tourist things, we can recommend the Montparnasse Tower for fantastic 360 degree views from the observation deck on the 56th floor and a very nice cafe and views from the 55th floor, the dome and glass walk in Galleries Lafayette, and La Madeleine.