Hotel du Nord

Advantages: Beautifully filmed, poetic, magnificently acted masterpiece of cinema rarely matched today
Disadvantages: Nothing... genuinely nothing

...I first saw Hotel du Nord as part of a double bill with a film by Jean Renoir (I forget which - though I think the brilliant Le Crime De Monsieur Lange) and I was frankly going to see the Renoir film and thought, hmmm, I'll just have to sit through Hotel du Nord and grin and bear it. Something about the film just really didn't appeal. Then right from the opening shot that tracks down from the bridge over the canal Saint Martin and along the side of the canal to where the two lovers, played by Annabella and Jean-Pierre Aumont, settle against one another on a bench, despairing and apparently doomed I simply didn't look back. I couldn't. Since that Sunday afternoon I have always had something of a soft spot for Hotel du Nord. It is firmly placed in the traditional of French cinema of the thirties. Like his contemporaries, Renoir...

No_name 11.02.2007 · Read review
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Review of Hotel Du Nord (Subtitled) (DVD)

A nice weekend away

Advantages: Comfortable and clean
Disadvantages: Had to get wet to get to the room

...Back in January I fancied having a few days away on my own and decided to go to York as it was far enough away to feel like a mini holiday, and I had never been before. The Hotel du Vin York is a new addition to the group, opening its doors in Autumn 2007 and has 44 bedrooms. I caught the train to York and the hotel was only a short walk from the station. It is situated just a short way from the race course so I am sure it is popular when the races are on. On first impressions the building from the outside was really nice with a large driveway and massive entrance door. But inside it wasn?t clear which way the reception desk was and when I found it, it wasn?t that accessible. The desk was situated behind three large pillars which didn?t leave much room between the desk and the pillars and it was a good job I didn?t have any large...

wolfey59 11.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Hotel du Vin & Bistro, York

French Culture In Harrogate, Who'd Have Thought It

Advantages: Great location, even greater wine cellar
Disadvantages: Breakfast was not quite to the standard I was expecting.

...Hotel du Vin are an exclusive brand of boutique style restaurants beginning with their first Hotel in Winchester back in 1994 this popular brand have spread across the UK at a rate of knots. With Hotels in Harrogate, Henley On Thames, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow, and Tunbridge Wells. The next 12 months are going to be one of the most exciting in HdV?s history with Hotels opening in Cheltenham, Cambridge, York, Poole and Newcastle. HdV offer the hotel guest an exclusive experience far different from any other hotel chain in the UK with the exception of course of Malmaison its sister company. Each hotel offers individual qualities or facilities but all contain certain specific requirements in order to make them part of the HdV ethos. HdV Harrogate appears to be one of the more written about hotels in the chain, but I guess...

sghawken 18.06.2007 · Read review
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Review of Hotel du Vin and Bistro, Harrogate

A Champagne of Hotels

Advantages: Pure unadulterated luxury and great service
Disadvantages: erm... nope can't think of any

...I like doing really daft spontaneous things. That's why I told my partner we were going out for dinner at the Hotel Du Vin in our nearby town of Tunbridge Wells, but secretly booked us into a luxury double room upstairs too. Now seeing as Tunbridge Wells is only a few miles away, it was a tiny bit of a decadent gesture but hey, let's go mad once in a while. I nearly managed to blow the whole surprise when in the bar for an aperitif I told him the glass of wine had already gone to my head! 'How are we going to drive home then?' he said worriedly. He then preceded to spend the whole evening weighing up the options of trying to catch the last train home, or splashing out on a cab and collecting the car the next day. Knowing our bags were already upstairs from when I'd checked in that afternoon I smiled to myself. Luckily the food...

Nell31 24.08.2005 · Read review
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Review of Hotel du Vin & Bistro, Royal Tunbridge Wells

Hotel Du NOrd, Interlaken

Advantages: excellent service, location
Disadvantages: none

...This is a great 4 star hotel in the centre of interlaken, close to all public transport including the 2 rail stations. Rail and bus travel is cheap in Switzerland. It is close to the centre of interlaken and has amazing views of the Jungfrau. It has a great restaurant and bar in the hotel as well as lovely gardens. This is a family friendly hotel with good disabled facilities. The staff offer excellent customer service and they speak french, english and german so helpful to all visitors. The hotel is central to tourist attractions in the area including the Jungfrau where you have to get a train too as well as the area where there is edelweiss flowers close by. The town has excellent facilities eg swimming. I would recommend this hotel and a visit to Interlaken....

mabi 18.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of Hotel Du Nord, Interlaken

My mis-spent youth transformed!

Advantages: They ask you to take the `freebies` away !
Disadvantages: Gets very busy and may need to book well in advance.

...History : Many years ago when I was a young under age alcohol drinking teenager living in a small village outside Winchester, Hampshire my friends and I would go to what was then called the `Southgate Hotel` to sneak inside the stale smelling bar to pretend we were 18 and sip martini and cinzanos believing we were the height of chic...................... In 1994 some one had the good heart to transform my illegal drinking den into the first Hotel Du Vin, a hotel built on its reputation of quality and turn it into something so chic, smooth and luxurious that I had to pinch myself the first time I revisited it. This is now one of several Hotel Du Vins and has been an adult retreat for me for 3 times now - I like to think that both myself and the hotel have improved with age ! Location: The Hotel Du Vin...

garageroom 23.11.2006 · Read review
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Review of Hotel du Vin, Winchester

Canal du Midi

Advantages: architectural wonder
Disadvantages: cost many human lives to build

...The Canal du Midi, is a man dug canal, situated in the south of France, and joins the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean sea, via the Canal Garonne. The water sources which allow the canal to be constantly navigable, come from the Montagne Noire, (situated in the south west of the Massif Central, near Mazamet, in the Tarn area), by three lakes, and the Saint Ferréol dam. This technical challenge, first imagined in 1539, stayed a project on paper for almost a century, until 1636. ¤ø,¸¸,◊,¸¸ ,ø It was Paul Riquet, an ingenious engineer, born in Béziers in 1604, who started the first portion of the Canal in 1636, under the reign of Louis XIV. The Saint Ferréol dam was built in 1667, and in 1680, the locks at Béziers, called "Les écluses de Fonseranne" were built. Pierre Paul Riquet died that year, and the very first navigation...

bodsquidge 25.06.2007 (09.06.2007) · Read review
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Review of Canal du Midi, Languedoc

Good Base for 'Swanning' around Paris

Advantages: Cheap, central
Disadvantages: Very small and very basic

...Having stayed in some very out of the way places in Rome and Prague this last year, when we were planning our trip to Paris I wanted to make sure we'd be within walking distance of at least some of the main sights and hopefully some bars and restaurants too. I was shocked at the price of hotels though so when scanning through the Superbreak website for the cheapest deals in certain arrondissements , I happened upon the Hotel du Cygne (or The Swan Hotel). A bit more research on Trip Advisor and it seemed this was about the best we were going to get for our budget. According to the website, the Hotel du Cygne is "part of a restored genuine 17th Century building that is located in the heart of the city, the old and historical section of Paris" furnished with "wooden period furniture carefully gathered from years of going round...

Teteenlair 22.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Hotel du Cygne, Paris

Cirque du Freak - The Vampires Assistant

Advantages: Nothing to shout at really
Disadvantages: Not as good as the book.

...Film details: Genre: Horror Film running length: 105 min Language: English Based on the Cirque du Freak vampire chronicles by UK Darren Shan. The film is a fantasy adventure. It tells the story of Darren, an ordinary teenager but things begin to change for him when a vampire named Larten Crepsley gets his teeth into him. Now a vampire Darren joins the Cirque Du Freak, a touring freak show, and unwittingly breaks a 200-year truce between two warring factions of vampires. Suddenly, the now not so ordinary teenager, has to somehow stop creatures from feasting on what?s left of his humanity. Its not a great a great plot, it seems rather disjointed and stumbles from one scene to the next. I found the film hard going( particulary after reading the book, its somewhere in the middle of an adult and childrens film. Some...

Falstaff100 31.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Cirque Du Freak - The Vampire's Assistant

Daphne du Maurier

Advantages: Excellent reads
Disadvantages: Only if you don't read any!

...Daphne du Maurier was a true when it comes to novelists. She had written some of the best books of her time which continues to be a source of enjoyment for readers all over the world. Perhaps her most well known books are Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and Frenchman's Creek but there are so many more novels and short stories to enjoy. Her first novel was The Loving Spirit, a story about one Cornish family through many generations and their fight to survive while making a living from building boats. In contrast, her last book, The House on the Strand is about a man who begins taking some kind of drug which enables him to go into the past where he learns about Cornwall from many years ago. Both of these books would make excellent films - I have no idea why they haven't been snatched up. Everyone should read at least one du Maurier book!...

benjis_mum 28.05.2008 · Read review
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Review of Daphne Du Maurier