Hôtel Saint-Christophe, Paris

A small independent on rue Lacépède

The hotel stands at 17 rue Lacépède, a street the hotel describes as quiet, near the place Monge in the 5th arrondissement. Our guide places it in the Mouffetard area, as a border case: the Arènes de Lutèce, the Roman amphitheatre, are three minutes away on foot and the place de la Contrescarpe four.

Atout France, which grants the official star ratings in France, classified it three stars on 24 February 2025, for 31 rooms. It belongs to no chain or group. The name appears both with and without a hyphen on the hotel’s pages; the register writes it without.

Thirty-one rooms, no extras

The rooms are singles, doubles and twins. There is no extra bed for an adult, so the hotel advises families to book two adjoining rooms; a cot can be added for a baby. All rooms have individually controlled air conditioning, and one of the 31, on the ground floor, is fitted out for guests with reduced mobility. On the top floor, the attic rooms look over the rooftops.

Services are kept simple. Breakfast is continental, without cooked dishes, and there is neither a bar nor a restaurant. Valuables go in safes at reception rather than in the rooms. For drivers, the hotel points to the Indigo Patriarches public car park, 300 metres away.

Arènes, Contrescarpe and the three-stars of rue Monge

Place Monge, on line 7, is 100 metres from the door. Line 10 can be picked up at Jussieu or Cardinal Lemoine. The Jardin des Plantes is about nine minutes on foot, the Panthéon about the same, and the hotel notes that the Gare d’Austerlitz can be reached through the garden.

On rue Monge, one to three minutes away, several three-stars offer more facilities than the Saint-Christophe. At no. 71, a minute away, Best Western Quartier Latin Panthéon has a hammam for guests in the evening and a family room for four; the Hôtel des Nations Saint Germain at no. 54 has triples and a quadruple opening onto small private courtyards; the Hôtel des Arènes at no. 51 has some rooms that look directly onto the amphitheatre. On rue Linné, the Hôtel du Jardin des Plantes adds a 50 m² terrace on its fifth floor but, like the Saint-Christophe, no family rooms.

For a four-star in the same area, the Hôtel Monte Cristo on rue Pascal, on the same metro line, has a pool, a restaurant and a bar.