After wandering through the Normandy D-day sites, we were delighted to find warm staff and wonderful food at the adjoining restaurant of this hotel. We felt doted upon and were refreshed. This hotel is a short drive down the road from the abbey town of Mont St. Michel. This proximity provided us with a quick start the next morning arriving at the medieval town before most other tourists. Lovely!

Hotel Saint Aubert is situated about one kilometre from the causeway going out to the island of Mont Saint Michel (which is not what the weblink map implies), so it's 2km from the island itself, about a 1/2 hour walk. It is located next to several other hotels and a little supermarket.

The rooms were perfectly comfortable with a decent-sized bathroom and a separate toilet all ensuite. We went for the 'confort' room (booking a standard room for our son) only to discover that 'confort' means the room had a super-kingsize bed, not that it was luxurious in any way! Our room also stank of smoke, but it was clean and a decent size and the bed was fairly comfortable. They put our son in a room just opposite so that worked well.

The staff were friendly and very helpful and it only took us two minutes to drive to the causeway parking for the island. Also, a few minutes down the road in the opposite direction was a Reptilarium which our son (8) really enjoyed - actually we all did. The hotel was not luxurious or beautiful, but it was cheap and clean and perfectly comfortable which was great for a budget bed as we wanted to spend all our time away from the hotel anyhow.

It is owned by the same family/company who own La Mere Poulard, the famous restaurant on the Mont. We had dinner at La Mere Poulard (which we could only afford because we were staying in the budget hotel) which was absolutely delicious, even on a Monday night. (The bill was a bit of a shock - last time I stayed there 22 years ago for 40-odd francs for two of us to have a seven course dinner, a room and breakfast - this time we had dinner for two (plus a small boy) and the bill came to over 200 euros. But it was really good food.)

Mont St Michel should be on everyone's list of places you must see in your lifetime. Touristy yes, breathtaking definitely. The Hotel Saint Aubert is a great way to be really close, affordably.