The Bristol Hotel in the Old City of Avignon, France

The Hotel Bristol at 44, Cours Jean Jaures, near the southern edge of the old walled town of Avignon, France was a reasonable place to stay -- both in price (96 euros) and in location. It is on a major street (which changes names every few blocks) though not a particularly noisy one. There is a pseudo-pub called O'Neill's attached to the front, but O'Neill's is more a brassiere (partly open-air in good weather) than a pub, particularly in not being rowdy -- even on weekend nights.

Our room was long and narrow, without anywhere to put suitcase. I am often frustrated that double rooms contain only one luggage rack, but this room did not have even one, although there was room for one next to armoire.... So the suitcases went on the floor, one by the armoire, one in the corner by the window.

The armoire had some shelves and (oddly!) provided hanging from back to front instead of sideways.

A small television had CNN and multiple French-language cable channels. (Oui, oui: I know that Avignon is in France and that the language is French and that I should note more than the English-language channel available... but this is an English-language review!)

A long desk could seat two on thinly padded chairs. (There is no WiFi in the rooms, not even at the exorbitant price charged by some hotels in France. There was a terminal in the lobby, but we went to an Internet cafe. A woman at the Tourism office that is practically across the street circled the location of four Internet cafes on the map she gave us.)

Adequate light to read shone both above the beds and above the desk.

There was a minibar, though I can't tell you what was in it.

In the bathroom there was a bathtub with a shower hose. There was no bidet (indeed there was not one in any of the hotels in the south of France in which we stayed). There was some countertop by the sink (This has to be remarked, because frequently there is none!) There were liquid shampoo/gel dispensers, both above the bathtub and above the sink. On the wall beside the sink was a very old-fashioned and inefficient hair-dryer. Other than soap, the only "toiletry" was a shower cap.

The desk had no stationery.