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Rue De Rennes/Blvd St Germain A Good Location?

Rue De Rennes/Blvd St Germain A Good Location?

Old Feb 6th, 2002, 01:22 PM
  #1  
LE
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Rue De Rennes/Blvd St Germain A Good Location?

My wife and I will be in Paris the end of July for 3 nights - our first visit there. We note there's a few reasonably priced hotels on Rue De Rennes, between Blvd St Germain and Blvd Du Montpanasse. Is this considered to be in the 6th? Is this a fairly decent area of town for new visitors who speak English only? What would be some drawbacks, perhaps? One hotel there, Du Dragon, tells us they will be closed the end of July for summer vacation. Is this common for hotels there?
 
Old Feb 6th, 2002, 01:50 PM
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Bob Brown
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Rue de Rennes is in the 6th. It is a good area. I am not sure what you mean by reasonable. I think you need air conditioning in Paris in July because buildings without full ventilation get hot. Also, if your room is on the street, you will not get much quiet.
The Dragon is on rue Dragon, and it is a no star hotel, which means that it is not classified, for better or for worse. The street the hotel is on, rue de Dragon, is intersects Boulevard St. Germain. I would say it is in the heart of the 6th.
I have no information at all about the hotel.
I know of no specific drawbacks, other than people in Paris sometimes don't want to speak English.
 
Old Feb 6th, 2002, 01:50 PM
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Ruth
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Could be a perfect area to explore Paris from! The north end of Rue de Rennes is about half way between Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, i.e. well placed for almost all the main sights, and well served by metro lines. It is an area with many restaurants, cafes etc, they will be used to English speakers (though learning a few words of French e.g. bonjour Madame/Monsieur, might be polite). There are some good menu translators in guidebooks which can help you to know what you are ordering!

Late July /August is when Parisians tend to go on vacation, but there will certainly be many hotels that remain open.
 
Old Feb 6th, 2002, 01:59 PM
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amy
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It's not our favorite area of town because we like stepping out the door and being nearer the "action" around Notre Dame and Ile de St. Louis. Last Thanksgiving, however, we had to find more reasonable accomodations because of the budget of our friends. We stayed at a hotel right across from the Severin Metro on Rue de Rennes and found it to be very convenient. It was quite safe. You have the advantage of being near one of the Air France shuttle bus stops at the Gare de Montparnasse, so your transportation from CDG can be reasonable and easy, plus you are near several other Metro stops, allowing you terrific access to all that the Metro has to offer.

To us, the area wasn't "Paris"; to our friends who had never been there, it was still delightful.

My friends did not speak any English, and they were able to manage quite well with a few memorized phrases (and their very polite manners). They enjoyed the glorious food market at Bon Marche right down the street.

I encourage to start learning a bit of French now so that you can truly enjoy what this city has to offer.

And yes, much of Paris shuts down at the end of July/August.
 
Old Feb 6th, 2002, 02:03 PM
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Jim
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Rue de Rennes is well located. However, your hotel will determine if you are happy there. Not many of these hotels have gotten the best praise. There is a best western there that we stayed at a few years ago that was pretty good.
 
Old Feb 6th, 2002, 02:19 PM
  #6  
LE
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Bob, You're sure right about that location. I was close tho. Actually, the hotel we're considering now is up at 159 Rue De Rennes, called Royal St Germain. It prices about $100 + tax ($20 for tax, which is quite a bit). How is that location. It is airconditioned.
 
Old Feb 6th, 2002, 02:56 PM
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Bob Brown
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The location of your hotel is just north of where I stayed as I recall, the Acacias St. Germain.
At any rate, it is close.
The area is lively at night and several bus lines go along rue des Rennes
Blvd Montparnasse is just a short walk south. It is an area that throbs at night, plenty of people along the street and all kinds of places to eat.
There is also a post office between where I stayed and Boulevard Montparnasse.
Our hotel at 151 bis rue des Rennes backed up to a school that was alive in the day, but mostly deserted after 6 PM until the bell rang about 8 AM.
I don't know if your hotel backs up to that school or not. We stayed in a non airconditioned place that summer, and the noise from the school was actually restful in the day time; it let you know that kids were having a good time.
I am glad we did not have a room on the front!! Rue des Rennes is a main drag so to speak, and those
French emergency vehicles have the most penetrating horns. I don't know if they are technically sireens or not, but they are loud to say the least, and they come by frequently!!

I think you will enjoy exploring up and down rue des Rennes, as well as wandering along Boulevard Montparnasse and some of the side streets that feed off of it. Within the triangle formed by rue des Rennes, Boulevard Raspail, and Boulevard Montparnasse, you have a lot to explore.
I would make sure had a good map with me, because those streets can get a little crazy with the odd angles at which they intersect each other.

The best thing about that location is that la Briochee Doree has a stand just south of the entrance to the Acacias Hotel. And there is another, larger one across Montparnasse to your left.
I found good sandwiches for lunch there as well as good pastries. In fact, you may not want to go into any bakeries. If you do, you might get home and your Paris travel log will read Bakery X, Bakery Y, La Brioche Doree, etc.
I tend to detour into every bakery, buy a few goodies, and then move along, but that sometimes delays me in getting to the minor attractions like Versailles, the Lourve, Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame, Ste. Chapelle, and Musee Rodin.
Oh well, a good raisin-cinnamon curly bun is better than a staid old art museum any day!!
 
Old Feb 6th, 2002, 03:00 PM
  #8  
Christina
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That is in the 6th arr. and it would be an ok area for convenience and non-French speakers, no problem. There are a few hotels on that street that are moderately priced, but I am confused about your reference to the Dragon as it isn't on rue de Rennes. If you are really asking is it good to be near rue de Rennes, I'd say yes, far superior to being right on it. I dislike that street at lot and wouldn't stay on it myself. It's a major street in Paris but not a blvd so not attractive and there is no vegetation. I just find it noisy, dirty and ugly, those would be my drawbacks. But nearby on a side street would be fine. Aside from the metro, some bus lines go down it which are convenient. I don't think it's common for a hotel to completely close for a month, but if that hotel doesn't have many foreign tourist clients and is family-run, that could explain it; they probably want to go on vacation themselves and won't miss much business.

I'm not sure about one reference above as there is no metro Severin; I suspect they mean the metro stop Sevres Babylone, but that isn't on rue de Rennes, it's on a much nicer street.
 
Old Feb 6th, 2002, 04:10 PM
  #9  
Fred
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Yes, it's a good location and it's in the 6th. Not that important for your enjoyment of the city. As long as you're in the central area you'll be fine. Don't worry about the language - no problem in Paris. There are English menus, English speaking people in almost all stores, restaurants. It's more fun if you know some phrases but not necessary. For more Paris information e-mail me: [email protected]
 
Old Feb 6th, 2002, 04:14 PM
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LE
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Glad to hear the different views. Sounds like mixed ratings regarding staying right on rue de Rennes. We may look around some more. Thanks everybody for being so responsive and helpful.
 
Old Feb 6th, 2002, 04:22 PM
  #11  
Bob Brown
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The hotel I use is on Raspail, just south of Montparnasse, which is technically in the 14th by a few yards.
Our hotel was air conditioned and the windows were double glass. We were not bothered by the noise on Raspail, even though one window looked out on Raspail, because the AC allowed us to keep our windows closed.
 
Old Feb 6th, 2002, 04:47 PM
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amy
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Christina was almost right. I have no idea why idea why I named the Metro as Severins, but it wasn't Sevres-Babylone, either. Actually--once again, why would I say Severins?--St. Placide. A couple of nice cafes and bakeries surrounded the stop, so it was a great place from which to launch ones morning, as long as one was going elsewhere. Safe, I assure you, though.

As you can tell, we weren't in love with Rue de Rennes itself, and I don't even necessarily agree that the side streets around there are better, but I do think the area is a wonderful economic buy from which to explore the rest of a city that my entire family adores.
 

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