BijouHotels.com is an independent editorial project that brings together places to stay with character all over France: small hotels, B&Bs, guest houses, holiday homes and villas, from Brittany to Provence, from Normandy to Corsica. The site is free for travellers: we may receive a small commission from our booking partners when you book through our links, at no extra cost to you.
Some places you forget the next morning, and others you remember for years. The first kind does its job: a clean room, a breakfast, a key. The second has something more, hard to measure and easy to recognise: a farmhouse restored stone by stone, an attic room looking out over the church towers, hosts who tell you about the Sunday market and the best table in the village. Places like these are kept like a jewel — and those are the ones we look for.
What we do
We seek out, document and describe places to stay all over France in detailed pages: what the place is like, what kinds of rooms it has, what facilities it offers, what is nearby and what the guests who stayed there point out. Pages are organised by region and by town, so you can compare at your own pace and really choose, instead of booking the first result in an endless list.
How we choose
We don’t publish endless lists. Out of a very large number of properties, we keep those backed by enough reviews from real guests, photos and complete information, and by something that sets them apart: a story, a setting, a way of welcoming guests. Places that don’t meet these criteria don’t make it into the guide.
A selection, not a list
Only properties with enough guest reviews, photos and complete information make it in. We prefer fewer pages, but better ones.
Carefully prepared information
Every page is built from the property’s public information and its guests’ reviews. Prices and availability change: you always see them up to date on the booking site.
For every traveller
A stone house in an inland village to switch off, a B&B in town for a weekend, a villa with a pool for the whole family: a lovely place to stay is not a question of budget.
Properties do not pay to be in the guide and cannot buy what we write about them. When a place doesn’t convince us, it simply doesn’t appear.
Our independence and transparency
BijouHotels.com is funded through affiliate links: if you book through our links, the booking partner may pay us a small commission. The price for you is exactly the same, and the commission changes neither what we write nor which properties we choose. If a property is ever featured on the homepage as part of a commercial agreement, we will say so clearly.
We write every page from the property’s data and its guests’ reviews. Even so, a page may contain errors, and prices, facilities and conditions change over time: always check the important details before you book. We explain everything in our legal notice.
Why “Bijou”?
Because a jewel doesn’t have to be big or expensive: it is something chosen with care, with a story, that you are glad to come back to. It is the feeling of the first morning in a guest house, when the shutters open onto the garden; of the small harbour hotel that keeps the same table for you every evening; of the room you still remember years later. It has nothing to do with size or luxury: there are five-star hotels that leave you cold and houses with a handful of rooms you never forget. We look for the second kind.
Where we are today
The guide covers the whole of mainland France, from the coast to inland villages and all the way to Corsica. It currently brings together more than 5 000 places to stay in more than 700 towns and villages across 1 regions, and can be read in 6 languages.
You can explore it by region, by town or by type of property. Every page takes you to the booking site to see the price and availability for your dates. And we keep adding properties and destinations.
Do you run a place to stay in France?
We like getting to know people who welcome their guests with care. Write to us through our contact page — also if you spot something that is not correct on one of our pages.
Write to usFrequently asked questions
Is BijouHotels.com a booking site?
No. We are an editorial guide: we handle neither bookings nor payments. When you choose a property, the link takes you to our booking partner’s site, where you see the final price and complete your booking.
Does it cost anything to use the site?
No. Browsing the guide is free, and booking through our links costs nothing extra: you pay the same as you would by going directly to the booking site.
What do you mean by a “bijou” place to stay?
A place with character, the kind you remember: for the building, the setting, the way you are welcomed. It might be a small boutique hotel, a stone farmhouse, a family-run guest house or a villa facing the sea: it depends neither on the category nor on the price.
Which areas does the guide cover?
The whole of mainland France: Brittany and Normandy, Provence and the Côte d’Azur, the Alps and the Pyrenees, the Loire Valley, the South-West, Alsace and Corsica. You can start from the regions page.