We arrived in Paris early, dropped our bags at Le Citizen hotel, and wandered straight downstairs and across the street for lunch. That’s the kind of hotel this is. Not a grand hotel, a cool hotel, set right on the Canal Saint-Martin. This is the cool neighborhood where real Parisians live, and one of the best natural wine pockets in the city. You see families biking along the canal in the afternoons, kids weaving ahead of their parents, and it has the easy feel of a neighborhood that is actually lived in.
Downstairs is Mike’s Pizza, a New York style pizza counter that serves the best New York pizza we’ve had on this side of the Atlantic. You can sit at a stool inside, or grab a slice and a glass and take it out to the canal. We did the latter. Pizza by the water, watching the boats queue up at the locks (which, by the way, you can watch multiple times a day from the hotel, such a cool detail).
Around the corner of the building they have a café window that opens straight onto the canal, selling pastries and really good coffee. On a summer day it is exactly where you want to be.
The hotel itself was renovated a few years ago, and our room was genuinely large by Paris standards. I know that’s a low bar, but anyone who has stayed in a 12 square metre chambre near the Marais will appreciate it. The design is quiet and modern, nothing fussy.
But the real reason to stay here is the location. You are walking distance to Sur Mer and Early June, two of the restaurants I would come back to Paris for alone. You are in the heart of the natural wine scene, with cavistes and small bars scattered along the canal in every direction. Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est are both about a 15 minute walk, which makes this an excellent base if you are arriving by Eurostar or heading on to anywhere else in France. There is a metro station close by, and several playgrounds within a few blocks, which made it a comfortable choice traveling with our son.
It is not the Paris of grand boulevards and gilded lobbies. It is the Paris of canal-side apéros, natural wine, and slow summer afternoons. Which is, honestly, the Paris I prefer to keep coming back to.
Note: Le Citizen Hotel provided support for the reporting of this story.