Alfred Hotels Toulouse Review: One Night Before Biarritz

Hello everyone, I hope you are well!

I am back with a little travel post after spending a few days in Biarritz — my first visit, finally! I had wanted to discover the city for ages, although there was one detail I had not properly considered: Biarritz is quite a long way away.

Once we looked properly at the journey, we decided to take our time and spend the first night in Toulouse. If we had to stop somewhere, I still wanted a hotel with a bit of personality rather than choosing one purely because it was convenient.

That is how I came across Alfred Hotels (Toulouse Centre Wilson)) on Staycation. I knew neither the hotel nor Toulouse, but the room photographs looked lovely and the price was around €100 for the night.

I thought we might have time to see a little of Toulouse when we arrived.
In reality, we dropped off our bags, went out for dinner and came straight back to bed. So I still know almost nothing about Toulouse. 😂

We will have to return!

Our first night on the road

We arrived in the early evening with our suitcases, everything for Biarritz and that particular tiredness you get after several hours in the car, when all you want is to find your room and stop moving for a while.

The welcome was genuinely friendly, and the car park next door made everything easy. We left the car, dropped our things in the room and were sorted for the evening.

I liked the hotel immediately. The interiors feel familiar and lived-in, with books, records, furniture that does not look as though it was ordered in batches of fifty, and little touches of colour everywhere.

Then we went upstairs to our room, and I absolutely loved it.

A hotel room I could happily have at home

That is exactly what I thought when I came in.

The room is simple in the best possible way: a large wooden headboard, white walls, a few photographs, books, a small green table and a lovely checked bedspread. There is not too much in it, and I would not have added a thing.

It is the sort of hotel room you can borrow ideas from without needing a 200-square-metre flat or impossible-to-find furniture.

And above all, it feels like home.

That feeling is surprisingly difficult to create in a hotel. Some rooms are beautiful, but unmistakably hotel rooms. Here, it felt more like a lovely guest bedroom, with just enough to make it warm.

I love that simplicity.

I should admit that I may be the least consistent person in the world when it comes to interiors, because I also love Rococo. Give me mouldings everywhere, enormous gilded mirrors and a painted ceiling and I will be very happy too.

I simply try to restrain myself, otherwise I go in EVERY direction.

I might want this bedroom in my home on Monday and decide on Tuesday that I absolutely need a Louis XV mirror in the living room. I’ve stopped trying to understand.

That is why I enjoy finding places like Alfred: they give me plenty of small, realistic ideas to take home.

And the bed…

The bed was exceptionally comfortable, soft without being ridiculous, with generous pillows. After the drive, it was exactly what we needed.

A good bed changes everything in a hotel. I can love the interiors, take fifty photographs and think the room is beautiful, but if I sleep badly I will still leave slightly irritated the next morning.

We had a really good sleep there.

Our room faced the street, and Toulouse was lively that evening, so there was some noise. Nothing disastrous, and it did not stop us sleeping, but light sleepers may prefer to request a room away from the street.

Between the long drive and that bed, though, we did not need much persuading to fall asleep.

Naturally, I began photographing everything

You know that moment when you start by taking a photo of the room and, twenty minutes later, you are photographing a towel?

That was me at Alfred Hotels.

I have always noticed the smallest details in hotels, restaurants and shops. I love seeing how each place builds its own world, even when my opinion of the overall experience is more mixed. It is exactly what I wrote about after my dinner at the Hôtel Amour in Paris.

The typography, menus, books, objects, tableware and bathroom products — there were so many details here that I wanted to keep in photographs.

I loved the oversized black letters used to mark the rooms along the corridors. It is incredibly simple, but exactly the kind of detail I can become fixated on.

Just like home, or almost

Even the towels caught my eye, with their navy stripes and small embroidered detail. The bathroom was equally simple and completely white, with a large shower and Rampal Latour products.

It didn’t take me long to settle into the bathroom either; my Aesop products found their place in two minutes flat and, naturally, that immediately helps you feel a bit more at home.

This is the routine I'm using at the moment and that my skin really likes, especially with my skin type. I talk about it at greater length in my everyday beauty routine for oily skin⁠, and I also told how I stopped wearing foundation⁠, because the two are quite closely linked in the end.

That was a beauty break!

Coming back to the decor, you could recreate plenty of things from this hotel in your own home.

Nothing feels overly precious or complicated, which is probably exactly why I liked it.

The rest of the hotel is even lovelier

The following morning, I took more time to look around the shared spaces and terrace, and found even more thoughtful ideas.

I particularly loved the terrace colours: pink parasols, pale blue tables, woven chairs and all the greenery around them. It has a relaxed holiday-house feeling that I really liked.

Inside, there are records, paintings, books and fairly retro furniture. Nothing is too perfect or overly coordinated — thankfully, because that is precisely what makes it feel so charming.

There is even a record selection I could easily have spent quite a while browsing.

Then, above our bed, I noticed Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, published by Éditions de Minuit.

Naturally, it made me smile.

A little nod to Minuit d’Orsay

That book rather neatly sums up why I pay so much attention to hotels.

I have always been drawn to these small details, and now I inevitably notice them through my eye as a web designer too. It is a large part of what I love about Minuit d’Orsay : working with places that have a genuine personality and considering everything that shapes their world, rather than stopping at a logo or website. I have written more about why I launched my web design studio in Paris in a dedicated post.

Alfred Hotels is a good example of why a place does not need to overdo things. A beautiful typeface in a corridor, an embroidered towel, a few well-chosen books, a repeated colour and a terrace with lovely chairs — these are often the details you remember without even realising it.

One last breakfast before getting back on the road

The next morning, we went downstairs for breakfast before continuing the drive.

The room follows the same visual language as the rest of the hotel, with a yellow-tiled counter, wood, a large green lamp, paintings and more records. The buffet was simple but good, with bread, pastries, cereals, jam and savoury options.

It was exactly what we needed before leaving: a quiet breakfast, one last trip upstairs for the suitcases and then back into the car.

Our holiday journey was not over yet.

Would I stay again?

Absolutely. It was only after our stay in Toulouse that I discoveredAlfred Hotels also has a property in Biarritz. Had I known earlier, we would definitely have considered staying there too, especially after enjoying Toulouse so much.

I saw almost nothing of Toulouse this time, so I will not pretend to be a city expert after one night and one dinner, but Alfred Hotels was a genuinely lovely surprise.

I liked the room, loved the bed, found the welcome genuinely friendly and appreciated having a car park next door. There was a little street noise that evening, but honestly, that is the only small downside I remember.

For the roughly €100 we paid through Staycation, I was very happy with our choice.

Most of all, I liked feeling as though we were sleeping in a real bedroom rather than a generic hotel room. It was simple, warm and attractive, with plenty of details I could happily have at home.

The next morning, we packed everything back into the car and continued towards Bordeaux for our second stop.

Then Biarritz, FINALLY.

After that first night, I can already say that breaking up the journey was the right decision.

I will tell you the rest very soon ♡

(We booked and paid for our stay at Alfred Hotels ourselves. This article is not sponsored.)