Christy

My family of four be capping a 5-week driving tour of Germany, Spain and France with a 4-day stay in Paris in early August, before departing from Frankfurt airport. (It's not a rental car..I'm borrowing a relative's minivan who lives in Germany.) Our hotel in Paris doesn't have private parking facilities. What are my best options to find secure parking in the Latin Quarter? Does it make sense to, for example, find some kind of long term parking in the outskirts and take the metro into the city? Can I do that at an airport? I'd sure like to know what I'm getting into. We'd originally written Paris off from our itinerary because of the parking issue, but have been persuaded to find the time. I appreciate all the expertise on this list, and have benefited greatly from the postings. <BR>Thanks.

Rex

In spite of your hotel saying that they have no parking available, I think they are still the first and best place to start. Send them a fax, and ask where is the nearest parking. Paris is not Venice. It's not THAT car-unfriendly. <BR> <BR>And even if they don't answer you in advance, I suspect that you will find something within a half mile of your hotel one way or another.

Vincent

You're lucky, because you will be in Paris in August: 1. half of the Parisians are away on vacation and (hence) 2. 80 % of the parking meters are free... that is not in the ultra-central neighborhoods, such as the Quartier Latin. But move a little further South towards the 13th or the 14th (5 metro stops away) and you'll find plenty of free parking space. You might even consider taking the car from time to time at night for instance. But be careful not to let ANYTHING visible in the van, or you'll be sure to have a window broken the day after (even if it's a harmless, empty backpack). No car radio either, of course.

Evelyne

Since Paris pretty much empties out of locals, parking won't be a huge concern for you. Of course the size of the minivan may mean a bit more patience is required (some parking garages don't accept them). The best bet is to find a garage that does and to talk to the manager to make sure he doesn't think it has been abandoned. Leave it there during teh stay and use metro and busses to get around town.

Christina

Your hotel really should be more helpful and should know the closest parking garage, I agree you should ask there; there certainly are some around Paris and the Latin Quarter. It would be worth it to me for the security and not worrying about finding street parking to use a garage, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to look on the street. I know there's a garage near where I usually stay called Sogeparc at 138 bd Montparnasse (right near intersections of bds Montparnasse and Raspail, very convenient to several metro stops) and their rates are 90F per day, which isn't bad for a big city, to me. ANyway, here's the greatest WEbsite in the world (well, the best I've found recently, I'm always finding new stuff on the WWW) that gives you Paris parking info: www.parisparking.fr <BR> <BR>You can search by metro stop you want to be close to, etc. I think it's only in French but should be fairly easy to use if you don't read French. Basically, for daily rates, click on "Public Parking" at the top, NOT location (which means "rental" in French, and apparently is for monthly/yearly rates), then put in your metro stop info and you'll get a list of close parking garages; if you click on their names, you'll get rates. There's also one near Luxembourg metro stop at 22 rue Soufflot which charges more (140F/day).

becky

last spring, while staying in the Latin Quarter, we simply parked the car on the street outside the hotel. since we walked everywhere until it was time to return the car at the airport, we never really moved it, so it was safe and close.