In Paris I frequently stay at the Citizen M Gare de Lyon. The hotel is located on Rue Van Gogh, which links the Gare de Lyon to the Gare d’Austerlitz on the other side of the river Seine.

The Citizen M is in easy walking distance to the sights of Paris, like Notre Dame, and the shopping in Le Marais. It’s also an excellent location to stay if you’re visiting the Opéra de la Bastille, which is located on the square right next to where the infamous bastille once stood. It’s an easy walk of ten minutes from the hotel to the opera.

Check-In

You can self-check in at the Citizen M hotel when you arrive, or you can use their online app. If you still have a key card from a previous stay at any other Citizen M hotel, you can just tap it to the back of your mobile phone and head straight to your room when you arrive. The app is also used to control the appliances in the room, such as TV, heating, and lights.

Lobby and Public Areas

While the layout of the lobby and restaurant may differ from one hotel to another based on the design and shape of the building, all Citizen M hotels have the same furniture by Vitra in Germany, which manufactures the legendary Eames Chair in Europe, among others.

Dining

There is a bar area where guests can also order food from a limited menu. The food is nothing special, but it’s not bad. I suspect that the meals are not actually prepared on the premises and simply warmed up. But I can’t be sure.

Breakfasts at the Citizen M are great. There’s a good spread of hot and cold dishes that are usually complemented by one or two local items. For example, at this Citizen M they offer lovely crèpes for breakfast, in addition to the usual offerings.

The Rooms

The room ms at the Citizen M are clean but small. Although the latter can be said about most hotels in the centre of Paris. At the Citizen M Gare de Lyon though, the corner rooms are much larger. I guess this is mainly because of the floor plan of the building, which was not originally designed as a hotel.

The larger rooms can either be selected at the time of booking, or you can make a request for one when you check in. Or, as in my case, you might just get lucky if the hotel is full and all standard size rooms are already taken by the time you check in.

Each room has a small desk with four types of electric power sockets (EU, US, UK, USB). There’s also a safe in the small drawer below the bed.

There isn’t really all that much space to hang clothes. Although there is a second, larger drawer under the bed that offers some additional space and storage.

All rooms have a shower only, and no bath. The amenities are hotel branded.

Conclusion

For me the Citizen M Gare de Lyon is very convenient because the station is serves is the terminus for all international TGV trains arriving from Switzerland. My only complaint is that the heating in all their facilities tends to be a bit unpredictable. On this stay, the room was icy cold when I arrived, and although I cranked the temperature up to 24 degrees to heat the room up, by morning it was still quite cold and the display showed only 19 degrees Celsius. What I like about the Citizen M brand is that the rooms have been clearly designed for practicality and functionality. And that they do well, I think.