Name: Le Grenier à Sel
Address: 10 rue Sainte-Anne, Montlucon, Montlucon, Montlucon, 03100, France
Rating: 8

Air conditioning

Elevator/lift

Smoke-free property

Heating

Newspapers

Gift shop

Garden

Terrace

Private check-in/check-out

All Spaces Non-Smoking (public and private)

Reception desk

General

Non-smoking rooms

Room service

Family room

DVD Player

Hairdryer

Flat-screen TV

Rooms

Safe-deposit box

Shoe shine

Luggage storage

Iron

Services and amenities

Diet menu (on request)

Breakfast

Breakfast in the room

Restaurant

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Sun Deck

Recreation

Offsite parking reservations required

Parking

Event facilities

Fax and copy machine

Meeting and presentation facilities

Conference Hall

Business

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Pets allowed

Pets

Extra decontamination measures

Personal protection equipment for guests

Additional measures against COVID-19

Health and Safety Measures

Location

At the hotel

Room amenities

Museum of Popular Music

Athanor Centre de Congrès

Le Grenier à Sel

Montlucon

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

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39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

Hotel and restaurant tucked away in the narrow medieval streets of Monlucon - really difficult to get near by car and even more impossible to park. The hotel furnished in a style that was the rage a hundred years ago. Some may like this but we were ambivalent. Air com in the room was nice as our stay coincided with the heatwave.
Dinner was served on the terrace in the small walled garden and we were completely unmoved by the menu - it was just -boring! The service was slow and inattentive. Don't you just hate having to keep asking for everything you want and trying to attract servers that always look the other way. 
Breakfast was dreadful with the buffet empty even a hour before service ended.

Transported back a generation or two!

We were initially a little concerned after seeing some negative reviews... no need at all. We arrived early, lovely, friendly reception. We were shown to a large, beautifully decorated room via a stone, circular staircase. We were offered drinks which were served immediately. We parked the car easily in the lovely courtyard. Our evening meal was served in the most relaxing, walled garden, very peaceful surroundings. Friendly and helpful staff and wonderful food. 
We had a lovely stay and would certainly recommend to friends. Thank you for a lovely stay. 


Wonderful

I hovered between 3 and 4 stars here. There is much to like but much to regret as well – both in the hotel and the restaurant.

Starting with the hotel: Access is quite difficult thanks to a combination of the one-way system and very narrow streets; and the free courtyard carpark is tight for a large car. The welcome was warm but most of the common parts were off-puttingly dark. (The owners seem to have taken their eco approach to energy to an extreme!)

It’s a lovely old building still retaining many period features in many of the rooms, including our bedroom on the first floor, but a touch more modernisation would be welcome: better lighting for reading, more electrical sockets for charging devices, better mattresses etc. The “welcome tray” for hot drinks contained one solitary Ceylon tea bag and one for Camomile, with only tiny expresso cups to make it in – a single mouthful!

But the biggest problem in the room was the pervasive smell of mothballs eveywhere! Not even a spell with the windows open would clear it.

Dinner was served in a room that was trying a bit too hard to look modern. The food, however, was well rooted in classic French techniques and traditions, with just small nods to modernity which added little but didn’t mar the dishes either.

The wine last was short and fairly uninspiring and – when it came to the point – several bottles were unavailable anyway.

Breakfast was a well above average buffet, served in a smaller, cosier room.

Overall 3.5 stars would be about right.

3.5 star experience

Staying here, you would never think you are steps from the city centre. This wonderful old hotel is beautiful refurbished. We had a fantastic room with a huge bathroom and a large airy bedroom.  There is parking for about 5-6 cars, but you need to advise the hotel in advance that you will be needing a space.  It is clearly a very popular venue for locals to eat so my heart sank when we arrived at dinner to find several big parties being held that evening.  But somehow the staff rallied and managed to keep everyone happy and we enjoyed a great meal.  We have already said we will stop over here again.

A gem of a hotel

I have booked a room at the "Le Grenier a Sel" via their own website. Since I am driving all the way from Switzerland, i.e. about 7 hours, on a Friday afternoon, I have mentioned in my reservation that we are going to arrive late, most likely around midnight, maybe 1 AM. The website warns clearly that starting from June you MUST also book a table with the hotel for every day of your stay. It is still May and, although I do not have to, and although I do not appreciate when things are presented to me as compulsory, I also ask for a lunch booking, since we are travelling to meet with friends who live in Montlucon.
The next day I receive nice messages of confirmations from all the hotels in France where we are going to stay during our 9 days vacation, except for "Le Grenier a Sel", where a short message tells me "We are sorry, we do not have a night watchman, since you arrive after 23:00 we have canceled your booking". Short and to the point! Not the slightest effort is wasted to try to find a solution: maybe you could try to arrive earlier, maybe we could leave the key for you somewhere (the way it happened for me several times in Switzerland), maybe... Nothing! "We have canceled your booking!".
I try to offer an amicable solution: my friend in Montlucon can come at a reasonable time of the day to check in for me and pick my key (I will get it from him when we arrive). I am happy to send to him copies of my reservation and IDs. I am even happy to pay the room in advance if needed.
After a while I get the following answer: "Suite à votre mail , il est difficile d’ expliquer  pour rentrer à l’hôtel .Cordialement", i.e. (losely) "It is difficult to get to the hotel". :-) :-) :-)
You can't even be upset with them! It is that unprofessional.

They seem not to need customers

If you ever travel to central France, and happen to be in Auvergne, and more specifically in one of its most sleepy departments Allier, you will discover there are only three cities that claim to have a four stars hotel. In Montluçon since the closure of the much-missed Chateau Saint-Jean the only four stars hotel remaining is the Hôtel Grenier à Sel. 

The Parking (on request)
As we were driving a new expensive car, we thought to opt for a room with parking. As explained on the Grenier à Sel web site the parking is only available upon request: And request we did, online and before the long road trip to Montluçon. We knew that old Montluçon was a medieval old borough with narrow winding streets but we were surprised, once we arrived at the hotel, that the parking consisted of an even more narrow little court yard containing four spaces of which three side by side so close to one another the two passengers have to choose to get out from the left or the right door as there is not enough space for both passengers to use their own doors.
The fourth parking space was the passage itself to get into the yard, so to put it simply the fourth parking blocked the other three cars preventing exit.
As we drove into the Lilliput parking a pleasant young woman looking very alarmed and told us that we didn’t have a parking reserved with our booking only to contradict herself, within minutes, upon my request to check her booking carefully. Once we were over the first of many “misunderstanding”, we were told that, I had indeed requested a parking on the booking and I could park my car in one of the four spots, but I would have to move the car later within an hour or I could park it in the front of the other three cars but then I would have had to move it within half an hour. Take your pick.
Then, we checked-in the hotel so we could at least unload the car of our luggage and then we decide to park outside the hotel with no security rather than having to move the car every time a guest of the hotel arrived or left. Not to mention that we could not leave the hotel by foot because we were told to be available in the hotel to move the car upon the hotel request. 
In addition to the un-secure street parking, we now had to wake up early, so we could feed the parking meter at 9am.
When I enquired about parking at reception on whether the hotel had more parking somewhere else I was rapidly dismissed by the receptionist and I was told that the tiny courtyard was indeed the only parking available. Plus the receptionist seemed to be more interested in us booking a table for the night than talking about my parking issues, but more about “The Dinner Table” later on.

The Rooms
We stayed in two different rooms at the hotel, the first night in room 6 “Chambre Jule” and one week later when we returned from Nice for another two days in room 4 “Chambre George”
I will not start on the style and taste of the décor, I am sure some people somewhere in the world think teddy bears in a cradle, powder pink, nylon curtains and paintings made by children are very stylish and tasteful.  However, I will talk about the room comfort, for a hotel that styles itself as a four stars establishment; the bed in room 6 was simply horrid it had a gimmicky electric-height-adjustable contraption and a cheap mattress. The pillows were filled with hard feathers so I could feel all the hard bits of the duck plumage poking into my face all night long. Needless to say, I only managed three hours sleep in room “Jule”. 
A week later in room 4 “Chambre George”, the bed was slightly better, unfortunately I banged my head at least 3 times on the chandelier or ‘bangelier’ as we named it, “uglyfied” by cheap electricity saving bulbs. With that in mind, the separated toilet was another issue. The toilet was  positioned in a small cupboard under the roof, so even knowing that I had to assume the “sit position” before getting into the cupboard I kept banging my head every time after flushing the toilet by instinctively standing up. (Photos included). 
The shower was a psychedelic hydro device with discotheque flashing lighting and loud music playing. Of course, one could turn off all these unwanted extras before having a shower provided that you would study meticulously the four laminated, different manuals stuck on the walls. Personally, I would have preferred nice pillows or even an empty fridge for a glass of cold water during the night, rather than the ridiculous shower contraption that no doubts, like the electric adjustable bed, didn’t come cheap.

The Breakfast
After my first sleepless night in 6 “Chambre Jule” we were quite excited and were looking for eating our breakfast coming from the same reputable restaurant of the Grenier a Sel. The dining room doubling as the breakfast room looked nice enough with a sort of rococo style the breakfast itself was however not rococo neither baroque but more on the minimalist side though brutalism seems more appropriate. Yes because the lovely brioche was hard and reminded me of concrete as for the mini croissant, we just travelled 700 miles to have a “mini” croissant why can’t we have normal one like the other 60million of French people in France?  Not only that, the mini me version of the real McCoy was stale and had probably been left there chilling for a day on the chipped wood table covered by the peacock blue nylon tablecloth. The coffee was the kind of coffee you get at the doctor’s waiting room, tasteless and unwanted, as for the apple juice that was good probably because not made by the hotel, the cut peaches were also nice. All there goodness for bargain price of “only” 14 euros pp.

The Internet
I know it is only a detail but, but we stayed in many hotels in France and usually when you need to log on the Wi-Fi of the hotel all you need is the network name and the password. “Non! pas” in the rosy nylon teddy bear galore Hôtel Grenier a Sel, in which, in order to get the internet, you need to register on some doggy website scheme under the pretence of “anti-terrorism”, and enter your name your surname your date of birth your home address how long you staying etc etc, I gave up and used my 3g instead.

The Bill
On our return to Montluçon from Nice soon after we arrived a woman came to talk to us, she looked abrupt and had a sort of insolent tone to her voice, out of respect I listen to her remarks politely, which turned out to be accusations plain and simple. She said to me in French: “You yes you! last week when you left for Nice you didn’t pay !”  
So I explained her that we did check out earlier in the morning with the young receptionist, we gave our key back and that we had our suite case with us, that we asked if everything was done and the receptionist said yes.
But “non! You left without saying anything and you didn’t pay!” she said, in other words the woman was accusing me of having orchestrated a runner from the hotel; Not a clever plan I tried to explain to her since she had our credit card for the online booking our address and our telephone number. Plus if this was the plan why return to the crime scene.
The more I was trying to defend myself the more she was accusing me of not paying the hotel. In other words, we were thieves. So I offered my cards immediately so we could pay for the total amount but she refused as she said it was not necessary because she had my card number anyway; you go figure.
Back in London we realised the money went out the very same day we checked out, which can only mean that the receptionist did her work properly afterall.

The Dinner Table
On the first night after the debacle of the parking and before my terrible night, sleep in room 6 “Jule”. We decided to visit my mother in Montluçon, we went downstairs and put back the room key on the wall and immediately the same young lady of the parking came rushing and quizzed us on where we were going and when we would be back as we should book our dinner table for the night. At first I didn’t pay too much attention to it as we knew we didn’t want to eat in the expensive hotel restaurant that night and I simply said we might eat some other night perhaps when we would come back from Nice the following week. The young woman said something about us having booked a table online which I found odd but maybe a mistake.
A week later when we came back from Nice, same thing again, “you know you booked a table etc etc” I said I didn’t, then she accepted we didn’t book a table but she said something about a rule of the hotel for which if you have a room you must dine in the evening in the hotel. At that point as I am not the kind of person to be bullied into anything I definitely made my decision not to eat ever in the hotel. And I declined again, she insisted again and again and after the fourth time I said to her in French “It’s the fourth time you ask me if I want to book a table I told you four time no, I will not answer differently the fifth time. Do what you will, but we will not eat here”
At that point, she backed off and we decided to eat in town in a restaurant of our choosing.
It is worth to explain that in France it is against the law for hotels to have compulsory breakfast or lunch or dinner forcing clients to eat when these items are not included in the bill.

Summarising the “four stars hôtel experience at le Grenier à Sel in Montluçon, we didn’t have the requested parking, the room were uncomfortable, the breakfast was awful, there was no internet, we were treated like potential thieves and we were continuously bullied and   intimidated into booking an unwanted expensive dinner table.
If you look at the picturesque image of the Grenier a Sel building with its lovely garden and ivy covered walls, everybody me included would still think the place is a postcard dream, unfortunately it really turned out to be a nightmare. The hotel is nothing more than a façade masking a badly managed and overpriced bed and breakfast.

Hôtel Grenier à Sel Montluçon,  An idyllic boutique hotel or an expensive nightmare.

Le Grenier à Sel

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