Just returned from a 3 night weekend break at the Couvent des Minimes in Lille. The public areas of the hotel are lovely, and the location is quiet and very central - 5 mins walk to Bois de Boulogne park and zoo and 10 mins stroll to the Grande Place or Musee des Beaux Arts.

Our standard room on the 3rd floor was very hot, and there was no airconditioning - this wouldn't normally be a problem, and wasn't something I'd expected to need in Northern France, but we happened to be there on the hotest weekend of the year and the small desk fan provided just didn't cool the room enough.

The only other problem was the bed - the mattress was incredibly hard and, coupled with the heat, it made it difficult to get a good night's sleep.

However, the service from reception was great, and although I took the opportunity to practice my french all weekend, they were equally happy to switch to English where required.

The breakfast buffet was good, and included plenty of fresh fruit as well as the usual bread, pastries and cereals and a limited cooked breakfast selection.

All in all our stay was fantastic value, booked as part of a package including Eurostar tickets. I would highly recommend this hotel, if it wasn't for the uncomfortable bed, but if you like a firm mattress, you might be ok!

Just returned from a long weekend at La Couvent des Minimes with a party of eight. Delightful location within easy walking distance of Vieux Lille. Incredible atrium, housing bar and restaurant. Rooms fine and clean. Staff very friendly and helpful. Cannot fault the hotel in 3/4 star range.

Highly recommend La Petite Cave - a club/restaurant with singers performing French songs from the past 40 years. Completely French (very little English spoken) and full of locals.

Lille is a great place for 2/3 days, but no more.

Booked as part of package from London to Lille on Eurostar through Railbookers, who I cannot recommend highly enough. Also cheaper than booking the same package through Eurostar.

Stayed in this hotel on weekend break to Lille. The location is excellent next to the Town Centre (5 - 10 mins walk) and also near the Citadel. The first impressions of the public areas are good, with the atrium containing the bar and restaurant well designed although rather warm when the sun is shining.

The room is adequate but nothing special. The room was small and the interior was a drab design, although the bed was comfortable. There was nowhere to sit in the room other than the bed, which was frustrating when it was raining outside and a wedding reception was occurring in the bar area. There is free tea and coffee, but the mini-bar was locked.

The breakfast was good with a wide selection of pastries, cereals and fruit. The staff generally were friendly and spoke good English if required.

I would recommend this hotel but mainly because of its location by a peaceful canal, which is near to the centre of things when required but secluded enough to make it peaceful.

Very pretty hotel, with nice large rooms, convienently located in a quiet position - only a 5 min walk to the Old Town with bars and restaurants, or a 10minute walk to the main center. The hotel is very nice, and the staff were freindly, but there were just a couple of things with regard to service that we found a bit irritating. Saturday night we went to the bar before ging out for dinner and watied 10mins for the drinks menu to be brought to us, a further 10mins for our order to be taken and then another 15mins for the drinks to arrive.There was only one barman on floor duty and the area was very busy. It was a shame as it's a lovely bar area and the paino playing was a nice touch too, but you wouldn't get many drinks if you stayed there all evening !! Breakfast was a bit disappointing too. We came down at 10am but then had to wait for 30mins to be seated by which time there wasn't much left including no croissants or pain au chocolates ! Maybe we were just unlucky ! It didn't really bother us that much and we certainly wouldn't let it put us off staying here again....I would definitly recommend the hotel...