Hôtel Mercure la Baule Majestic

This 2-night stay was fairly expensive but no hotel of this calibre in La Baule will be cheap. That said, we DID choose what must be one of their best rooms, a Junior Suite [#703] on a corner of the top floor, with windows on two sides. It had a fabulous view over the wide sweep of beach, and fantastic sunrises. The Mercure Majestic is located right on the promenade at one end of La Baule's very long, clean, sandy beach. Ideal for bucket & spade aficionados. The hotel is well-appointed and comfortable, and has private parking (I don't think I'd want to park my Tesla on the street). The breakfast spread was terrific, complete with crepes and a dispenser of salted caramel goo to put on them. Great breads, jams, honeys and really good butter. Scrambled eggs and terrific sausages (but no bacon, sadly). The usual crappy bean-to-cup, infinite permutations coffee machine when what you really want is a cafetiere of strong coffee...but that ship has sailed. We had dinner in Le Ruban Bleu restaurant both nights, taking their Menu Plaisir (3 plats, 39 euros). Night 1 was a little disappointing: starters of Ganache of foie gras, where it was difficult to discern any foie gras (which we eat a lot) and Chromesquis de Crevettes (like an Arancini) where it was equally difficult to discern any crevettes. But my main of octopus was good as was the Mijoté de Cochon. Nice cheeses, good Paris-Brest dessert (here christened Paris-La Baule; well obviously). Wines were a Muscadet at 30 euros and a St Nicholas de Bourgeuil at 40 (which I thought was a tiny bit expensive). Night 2 was better, with a bottle of Chinon at 26 euros, a glass of Luberon rosé at 5.50 and one of Coteaux du Layon at 6.50 with dessert. One wrinkle to our stay was that the same lad, for all appearances a trainee, kept popping up at every meal. I know my French is rusty but it is clearly better than his command of English, since he failed to understand a single thing we said (in either language), knows nothing about wine, or serving it properly. He popped up again at breakfast but luckily you serve yourself to most of it. He even popped up when we came back at lunchtime gagging a for a glass of Breton cider, our request for which completely flummoxed him and he had to seek help from the experienced and knowledgeable waiter who speaks excellent English and who also served us most of the time. Bottom line? La Baule is somewhere we will return and the Mercure Majestic is now tried-and-tested.

We found that this hotel has everything to make a stay at La Baule a delight. It's literally across the street from the wonderful beach with fabulous sea views in a number of rooms like the one we had. It's beautifully designed and perfectly kept up. The entire staff is efficient and friendly. The dining room offers excellent meals, including a generous hot and cold buffet with international and local specialties. We had two oustanding dinners. The chef seems to be specialist in sauces as we found in both veal dishes we enjoyed. The serving staff we had in the morning and evening could not have been more efficient and attentive to our enjoyment. We also find there is real value for money here as the hotel was a big reason why our stay was so memorable.