Le Petit Manoir Logis

From the pictures and reviews, I expected a nice manor in a village not far from Avignon - I shouldn’t have! The hotel might have been a countryside property at some point, but now has been engulfed by rather prosaic outskirts of the city, looks tired and is totally devoid of charm. But yes, there is a gorgeous pine tree by the pool, and several rooms (not ours) have nice terraces facing the pool area - those must be more expensive. Having reached the place through very narrow and winding streets (that might have been the fault of our GPS though - we left quite easily through e nearby circular intersection), we found ourselves at a very tiny and uninviting reception area that looked like a liquor store in Harlem, all cordoned off from the guests, with screens and locked doors all around (see photo). No welcoming chairs or sofas, and when a group of 8 people arrived, most of them had to wait outside as the tiny area can’t fit more than 2 people. The entrance to our block of rooms looked like an entry to some institution, with instructions on the walls, bars on the windows and narrow corridors - as I said, no charm. The room itself was ok, once we got the A/C to work - that took a lot of going back and forth between the room and reception and a visit from the receptionist. I was a bit taken aback by the lack of a headboard though, and am not sure if the bed was supposed to have no upper sheet. Ours just had a white throw - is it changed every time, like a sheet?The pool water was green and had some stuff floating in it. Come to think of it, it might have been the breeding ground for the hordes of mosquitoes on the property. So thank God for the air conditioning, for although we had a balcony, we could’ve keep the doors open because of the insects. Unwilling to use the green pool, we wanted to play ping pong, but the table was dirty and stuck in dirt - it wouldn’t have been usable even after cleaning as it was parked right next to the plastic children’s playhouse. And Wi-Fi signal was very weak. On the positive side, breakfast was good, and dinner at the restaurant next door was ok. Oh, and the bathroom had good ventilation and was pretty clean. I do realize that Le Petit Manoir is cheaper than many other hotels in Provence, but for me, the night for 77 euros there was a waste of time: there was nothing to do, nowhere to go in the immediate neighborhood (we had explored Avignon itself already), and the general run-down and sad feeling of the place was disappointing.