Churchill Hotel in France

In FRANCE, we chose the Churchill Hotel (14-16 rue Saint Jean, 14400 Bayeux, France; phone +33 2 31 21 31 80, fax 2 31 21 41 66 or visit www.hotel-churchill.fr. Reservations for the hotel can also be made through www.france.com) largely on a recommendation in answer to our “Person to Person” query in ITN. The praise given for the hotel was right on the mark.

The Churchill is delightful and incredibly well situated. The Bayeux Tapestry is steps away from the front door as is the Battle Bus tour of the Normandy beaches (phone +33 231 222882 [note: phone calls will not be returned to numbers outside France] or visit www.battlebus.fr).

We stayed three days in late May ’07. Our Junior Suite was spacious and well furnished and cost €170 ($223) per night.

The receptionist Daniel and the owners, Rima and Francois Hebert, were charming, spoke English and appreciated my attempts at French.

Daniel, in particular, went out of his way to make dinner reservations for us each night. Our favorite restaurant (although all our meals were wonderful) was La Rapiere (53, rue Saint-Jean-14400 Bayeux; phone 02 31 21 05 45), a family-run restaurant a 2-minute walk from the hotel. Our delectable 3-course meal with wine cost the two of us €80 ($109).

And a last comment to those still in the “anywhere but France” frame of mind — every person we dealt with was polite, helpful and gracious; the wine and cheese were superb, and we cannot wait to return.

JUDITH BEINER

Boca Raton, FL