URGENT! Need help in Montmartre area for 2 very scared & confused teenagers

aliska - I was actually wondering quite seriously about their choice of area but who am I, (just a 12 times to Paris South African) to advise them against it.
Tomorrow is Friday - if they can get onto the internet or YOU, book The Ibis Hotel Espalnade La Defense for 49 euros a TWIN room en suite. We always do this and it's absolutely fantastic! You can view the hotel as well - I GUARANTEE they will love it!

PS - Do not panic! They are in no danger whatsoever. Just not acclimatised to being in an 'Ethnic type' area. It's very different and we are not at all fazed by it but I can imagine just how two 'wet-behind-the-ears' are looking wide-eyed at their surroundings. It's all pretty safe - just very different!

They are panicing for no reason. Obviously they're not used to large multi-ethnic cities with some areas that are less pleasant than others.

The hotel suggestion above is a good one.

But - they set out to do this and I think you need to back off and let them learn to cope. Otherwise they never will.

It's paris - not Mars - for heven's sake!

aliska,

Peoples perceptions of safety vary widely and those who live in an area ARE safer because they know what to look out for. Even if someone who lives nearby says the hotel is safe enough, the fact that your DD and N feel bad will make not make for a memorable Paris vacation.

Get on the phone yourself and CALL (NOT email, obviously) these hotels. All 4 are in very safe areas and in the €50/night range. These shared bath, 1 stars are not the kinds of places air show people stay.

Hotel du Commerce
14 rue de la montagne sainte genevieve,75005, Paris
Phone: +33 (0)1 43 54 89 69
Fax: +33 (0)1 43 54 76 09
http://www.commerceparishotel.com

Hotel de Rouen
42 rue Croix des Petits Champs, Paris
Phone: +33 (0)1 42 61 38 21
Fax: +33 (0)1 42 61 38 21
metro: Palais Royal
http://www.hotelderouen.net/

Hotel Stella
41 Rue Mr. Le Prince, Paris
Phone: +33 (0)1 40 51 00 25/ (0)6 07 03 19 71
Fax: +33 (0)1 43 54 97 28
metro: Ode´on
http://site.voila.fr/hotel-stella/

Hotel Rivoli
44 Rue de Rivoli (and 2 Rue des Mauvais Garcons), Paris
Phone: +33(0)1 42 72 08 41
metro: Hôtel de Ville

I pulled them from here:
http://www.eurocheapo.com/paris/
If all 4 places I listed above are all full (unlikely) TELEPHONE some of the others on the website.

Best of luck.

There is nothing to worry about. I think they're just a bit panicked at being in new surroundings. That said, I wouldn't choose Montmartre for first-timers to Paris or for teenagers, so if you can get them that room tod mentions, everyone might feel better.

There is some sleazy behavior and crime in Montmartre, I never would have recommended that location for them. The problem is they haven't traveled and are very young, it was just not a good idea. Having a double bed is a killer, anyway, though.

They should go to the Paris Tourism Office, that is what they are for. They help people get rooms and according to the criteria they have.

Aliska - Sorry to have to add - the 49euro rooms are from Friday night untill Sunday night - then it reverts back to 126-?euros per night. Off the street they can get the same room to 69euros at The Ibis Esplanade La Defense. The metro runs directly to and from the hotel to Charles de Gaulle Etoile or The Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees.

That hotel is on the same block that I live on. I have always thought it looked overpriced. The drug addict center is just a few steps away from the hotel, not that it is any problem.

The area is completely safe for anybody with a trifle of sense (for example: change sidewalk if people are staggering in your direction at 2 a.m. -- no big deal).

For those warning about 'Montmartre' -- this is not Montmartre at all. Never forget that hotels consistently lie about their location in cities like Paris. Just because something it is the 18th arrondissement, it is NOT necessarily in Montmartre.

What about changing to the Hotel de Torcy on rue de Torcy just 2 blocks away? The most expensive room is 55 euros.

I think they booked a double, so they can't really expect a twin.

I suggest they move to a hostel. Tens of thousands of teenagers stay at Paris hostels every year, and it goes well for almost all of them. Check www.hostelz.com and www.hostelworld.com .

aliska - any updates? How are the kids doing?

Are they....(gulp)....suddenly having fun after a good night of sleep?

I have not updated because (as Kerouac guessed)things seem to be working out. I am embarrassed and feel they have over-reacted. While the neighborhood they are staying in is certainly not the best (south of Montmartre Barbes de Rochfort?, they managed to stay last night without getting robbed, beaten or sold into sex slavery. When I suggested hostel options or working themselves to find more options, they said they would.

This morning they went to look at the Hotel Edouard VI near Montparnasse, but it was over 190E night for twin, way more than they had budgeted. I spent 6 hours yesterday just finding that option. Thank you to all the suggestions, I checked almost all of them and didn't find any availability or the rates we need. Called Paris hotels directly quite a few times.

Haven't heard from them since early morning, assume they are out and going sightseeing. No news is usually good news. What did folks do before instantaneous email and cell phones? Sometimes I feel this technology serves to reinforce the parental umbilical cord.

Hopefully, they are having a good time and will have terrific stories to share with us upon their return. Thanks again for the support & help.

Hi aliska - It sure sounds like they're getting used to their new environment. Good for them! Thanks for posting back.

Thanks for the update.

Your post has a lot of wisdom in it. Way back in the olden days, I used my Let's Go book to find recommended rooms and hoped for the best. There were times when I had to change hotels but I certainly never informed my parents about it.

They couldn't have done anything but worry anyway.

ditto what schuler said. For me, it was hostels and TI offices upon arrival etc to find a place to sleep at night. I don't even think anyone knew my itinerary since I traveled alone for the most part, and my parents were 6000 miles away.

www.accorhotels.com

Certainly there is something in their budget there.

K, thanks for the link. Because of the air show, most hotel rooms are either full or ridiculously expensive. The cheapest available on your Accor link is $250/night, outside their budget. I think they will either go to a youth hostel or figure out how to survive staying in the neighborhood of the Bellevue.

Hopefully they'll have a great time and will tell the story for years about how Mom got us a hotel room on the same block as the drug addict center and the notorious Kerouac's apartment, but we avoided getting sold into slavery and will do our own research from now on.

Nikki - a classic and I bet that's exactly what happens!

Air show??? There is no air show at the moment.

The Ibis Hotel at Porte de la Villette is showing rooms at 55€ starting tomorrow, and is completely available.

Code hôtel: 1401

K, the air show starts Monday, but the town is already booked up. See NYT article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/business/global/13airshow.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=paris%20air%20show&st=cse

As to what folks did before e-mail , text messaging, and cell phones, well I was in that generation of travelers. Out at 17, a month before my 18th birthday, female and traveling Europe and for 20-plus years of summers.

There were always situations, but we had to just deal with them, think on our toes, and figure stuff out. There was no calling home unless it was an absolute life/death emergency. If we had called home for every little thing, our parents would have said that we weren't mature enough and then would have told us we weren't going again for a couple of years or so. So, we knew when and what to call home about if we had to. Plus, back then, we had to go to the post office to place a call as it was the cheapest way. Sometimes it would take over an hour to get a line out to the States.

A large group of friends of mine were out at that age wondering through Europe and I could write a book about the fleabag hotels that many of us stayed at and not in the best of neighborhoods to say the least. But , it was part of the experience. And, we're still alive to tell the stories and laugh hysterically about it all....now in our early 50s. Smiles.

I'm really glad it looks like it's working out for them. It's all part of growing up. Happy Travels!

Shuler...."ditto". And I was gone for 11 weeks at a time, alone, and as I said, female. So, what were the parents back in L.A. County to do while I was in Europe? I'd call in to say everything was fine about every other week. It would be a 5-minute call and that was it. Happy Travels!

Kids today seem to be much more wordly than we were, but in many ways much less mature. Forty plus years ago on my first trip to Europe, I never called home in three months. Communication was by postcard and letter and the post was not consistent. Sometimes my family received letters out of the order in which they were mailed. I was shocked by some of the things I saw (I was from a small town and small college with curfews and rules), but mostly I was just thrilled to be seeing things I'd only seen in pictures in books or slides which a teacher/professor might have shared with a class. I was naive enough to be surprised to find they looked as I had imagined them, only better in living color. What a wonderful summer! (My friend (another small town girl from the same college) and I still laugh about our adventures and roll our eyes at how innocent we were.)

I laughed when I read this thread and saw bardo1's recommendation for the Hotel du Commerce, b/c it figures in my own favorite funny memory of being young and poor in Paris long ago.

In 1984, the Hotel du Commerce was, to put it charitably, a basic kind of place, with a shared toilet in a little room off the staircase and no bathing facilities that I recall, just the kind of hotel that very young people choose to save money. A couple days into my stay, I finally figured out that the itchy little welts all over me were bedbug bites.

There was a pharmacy down the street. Being in France, everything was kept behind the counter. My vocabulary not stretching to the word for "bedbug," I approached the pharmacist and in my best, slightly rusty, high school French declaimed, "nous avons été attaqués par des mouches!" (Translation: "We have been attacked by flies!")

The pharmacist stared at me, as well he might.

I pointed vigorously down the block in the direction of the Hotel du Commerce.

The pharmacist's brow cleared in understanding, and he fetched an appropriate soothing lotion.

You only get to be young and wide-eyed and naive for a brief time. I hope your DD and nephew enjoy every minute of theirs. I sure did.

I biked past the Bellvue this morning and it looks like it has been upgraded. However the whole block is in demolition/renovation mode at the moment so it doesn't look like a postcard of Paris.

In 3 years, when the whole new district is completed where the railroad tracks are now, young people will be beating a path to the area, because the largest and best youth hostel in Paris will be moving in as well (only normal because the French headquarters of the world youth hostel association is right here, too, just half a block from the Bellevue).

Correction: "wandering", not "wondering". Guess I should have gone to bed. Smiles. Happy Travels!

Frank;y I think kids are more worldly now than we were in some ways - but more dependent in terms of expecting things to be done for them.

My first trip to europe at 19 I saw things I never had before (in Munich a hooker naked under her raincoat who was flashing all the passing men to try to drum up business). And we got into Paris very late at night and had to take a hotel that was less than salubrious. But - you just deal with it and the next day find something better. But I would never have called home for help (what could my parents have done except worry??)

But perhaps some of the problems in this case is that the "kids" in question are very naive and have never navigated a large city on their own before. So - they're having to grow up more and faster than most would in that situation. (Any kid that grows up in a city knows there are halfway houses for addicts or the mentally ill - and not to hang around in front of one of them. And while not pleasant - it;s noting to make a fuss about. If these "kids" had been used to riding the Broadway local they wouldn't have batted an eye.

nytraveler-It's the same here in L.A. all kinds of folks, halfway houses, homeless, etc. And although I'm from quiet Pasadena, across the freeway, we weren't naive to the realities of the world, as we knew folks from all walks of life....just hang out on Hollywood Blvd. at night on weekends.

And I don't know if kids are more worldly now than we were back then in the early 70s. They just have more worldly "images" due to all that's put on TV and the internet these day, but that has nothing to do with real lifeskills or worldliness, as we were expected to problem solve and figure things out on our own.

Plus, in my day, after high school, we were expected to either go off to a 4-year college or to work and support ourselves. 90% of my group packed up and went off to university . The other 10% packed up and found an apartment and went to work full time. Not like now with kids living at home well into their late 20s and even 30s and still depending on parents.

I have a friend, from New York, who said his 17 -year old will be off to college in September and will be on a semester abroad program his first semester. He said it's time for him to use the lifeskills he's been taught and stand on his own two feet. He's very adamant about that. Smiles. Happy Travels!

I'm sure that they'll come home with very warm memories and hopefully laugh at their initial fears. I think dealing with trying circumstances and handling them gives you confidence in your own abilities. Maybe you can talk them into a trip report when they get home.

Guenmai, YK & Irishface,

You could have been one of my DDs many years ago. At age 19, my youngest took a long break from college and went to Europe for several months. She started with a plane ticket and a couple of hundred dollars. We were afraid she wouldn't go back to college, and didn't want her to drop out, so we gave her not a penny. She wandered from Ireland to Italy, sleeping in all kinds of places and taking odd jobs: digging potatoes in England, living in box city in Amsterdam, writing news articles and working as a hotel maid in Germany, participating in tearing down the Berlin Wall. In seven months, I think we got a half dozen letters and the same number of phone calls. We never knew where she was except when she called, because by time we got a letter, she had already moved on. I am glad I didn't know all that was happening on a daily basis. She did return to college.

this thread has brought back memories... from a distance, they are fondly remembered, but when in the midst of them, not so fun.

I, too, was one of those college kids that lived by a tattered version of Let's Go. One advantage (?) was that no one had any money, so we didn't stay in hotels, we all did the hostels. I remember running into the same people a week or two later that we had met at different hostels in a different town.

Thankfully, my parents had no clue. I called them every 10 days or so or when I was desperate for money. (Back then, we had a deal ... my credit card was through my local bank - I would have my mom transfer money from my savings account to my credit card and then I would take a cash advance. Since I had a credit balance, I didn't pay exhorbitant fees. I don't think the bank expected us to use it that way!)

I remember arriving in Vienna during Easter weekend. Not a (cheap) room to be found. We parked our stuff in the lockers at the train station, and took a night train about 4-5 hours away, got off and got back on coming back to Vienna. (this was during the days of rail passes).

I agree that kids today are more worldly but less independent. On the other hand, although my kids are still little, I certainly know I probably shelter them too much. It is hard to find that balance of protecting a kid and preparing a kid... we all know that parenting is the easiest thing to second guess yourself about!

aliska, hope they have a great time!

Tahl;

>You only get to be young and wide-eyed and naive for a brief time<

That's beautiful. Succinct and abundant. A very nice sentiment.

I hope you'll continue to update us.

What we did before email and cell phones... was figure it out in our own -lol! As it sounds like they are doing.

Because they are there, in Paris already, and you are not, why can't they walk around and look for a different hotel themselves? I'm guessing they would have better luck then you trying to do it from home. Or if all of Paris is truly booked, why don't they hop a train to some other city?

Surfmom-Back when I was traveling, there were student hotels and hostels and some hostel-type places had some private rooms, for a little more money, that were set up for 2 people.

A friend and I stayed in one like that in Paris, in 1976, I think it was. It was called the Hotel Fauconnier in the 4th, altough it was set up like a hostel.

The whole building was full of young people. On the top floor, there were a few private rooms with one communal bathroom, toilet, for all on the top floor to share. My friend and I took a room, on the top floor. In our room were two, twin beds, a sink, and a shower that only had cold water. I remember freezing in the shower.

We took our breakfast, downstairs, on the long tables with everyone else. Then after breakfast, everyone had to vacate the building, because it was locked down most of the day, to be cleaned and didn't reopen until the evening. And if you went out in the evening and got back after the doors were locked at night, too bad. You weren't let in. So, I guess folks were sleeping under bridges because there was always some wild youth, who partied too much, returned after lockdown, so to speak, and got locked out.

And there were plenty of places that we stayed at, most, that had no bathroom facilities in our rooms. We had communal showers and toilets down the hall. It was quite basic. But we just went with the flow. Smiles. I hope when the two 18- year olds get home that they read this thread and realize how lucky they were to not stay in a fleabag place. Happy Travels!

surfmom-I'm cracking up because I just read where you wrote that you kind of used night trains as your hotel room. We also occasionally did that if there were no cheap places left to be had in a city that we'd arrived into.

We had Eurail passes, so would buy a couchette (sp?) in a train or if it was a train that wasn't on a busy route, just pull the two seats out to connect and then sleep on the train, headed to wherever and when we woke up, wherever, we'd try to find a room in that city or town. We happened upon some really interesting places that way that we hadn't planned on seeing. And we always met interesting youth since the Europeans were out on Interrail. We were all in second class compartments back then. It wasn't until many years later that we bought first-class Eurail passes. Happy Travels!

You were given all measures of assistance and recommendations (much of which you ignored) ahead of this excursion...

Anyone, including you, can only hope that these two kids have some measure of savvy and resourcefullness between the two of them to enjoy this trip and not encounter any contiginencies they are unable to endure/handle.

For sure, it will be an amazing learning experience for them both.

I hope the "children" survived. I too traveled to europe on my own in the 70's and never dreamed of calling home for concierge services.

The thread reminds me of a school student trip to Australia our then ten-year old took a few years back. The trip brochure and regular meetings before launch touted the educational benefits, including broadened horizons and measured independence, that were certain to flow from the experience. Sure enough, when faced with a challenge another student on the trip bypassed the teacher leaders and went straight to the top: he complained by cellphone to mom that he was too cold at the hotel at night. Mom faxed the hotel a request for another blanket.

hmmm - that is fantastic!!! Another example - not travel related though..... My husband is a high school principal and was most alarmed to see the police arrive at his school one day a few years ago. He flew out of his office to see what they wanted, only to be told there was a fight in the playground. HB didn't know anything of this but sure enough one of the students had called the police on the cellphone rather than run into the school office to let anyone know. HB was NOT happy.

An update, we had email from the kids this morning. Hadn't heard from them since late Friday. My view is No News is Good News and we did not contact them over the weekend. Surprise, surprise, they sorted out the hotel situation and decided to stay at the Bellevue. I guess when they looked at the basics of a youth hostel or 1 star hotel vs. 3 star Bellevue, they decided to stay. They wrote that they managed to find a nice neighborhood on the other side (?) of the hotel and have not been venturing into the immigrant/poorer side. They bought a museum pass and traveled to Versailles with a picnic lunch on Saturday.

A man tried to grab DDs purse on the train. DD is 5'9", big strong LaCrosse player who is very phsycially fit. She held onto purse, kicked guy and Nephew screamed for help in French. They laughed about it. (In January, she broked the nose of an attacker here in CMH who tried to mug her with a kick boxing kick - she is very confident about taking care of herself).

They have been eating croissants, pan du chocolat, pastries all over Paris. Nephew has relaxed his vegan diet to vegetarian so he too can partake of French goodies.

They have been all over the city, visited the Louvre, Rodin museum, Museum of Erotica in Montmartre, several gardens, etc. They visited a hookah bar and met other kids. They tried Gitanes, a French cigarette, but not so good. They are having fun drinking wine and beer but being responsible (so they claim).

Sounds to me that everything is turning out OK. I just hope they don't assume they will be drinking wine & beer at my house (they are 18).

Forgot to ask, DD's suitcase was ripped on the flight over. Can anyone suggest an inexpensive discount store or other place (flea market?) to buy a suitcase for around 55-75 Euros? Thanks!

Can she get it repaired at a shoemaker? That might be the cheapest option to get her home with the suitcase rather than spending money on vacation to replace it. She should ask at the hotel for a local shoemaker.

She should also ask at the hotel for an inexpensive place nearby to buy a suitcase/duffel.

Or perhaps Kerouac will see this thread and respond again. If you don't get an answer start another thread about the suitcase.

Glad to hear they're both fine and doing the sort of things teens on holiday have been doing for decades.

Regarding an inexpensive store to buy a suitcase, they've probably find a store and purchased a replacement bag already and are now drinking beers in the sunshine and finishing off that pack of Gitanes.

My advice to aliska is to stop trying to sort out their difficulties from abroad and let the two of them deal with their "adventures" themselves. The ripped suitcase is certainly not a big deal, and if I were DD, I'd be trying to figure out where to get my hands on some duct tape.

It would be cheaper to buy a new suitcase than get one fixed. NOt to mention the time that could take. You can buy suitcases pretty dirt cheap nowadays, and Paris is no exception. They don't need to expensive brand or anything, they probably have them in Monoprix, although I'm not positive, but maybe some cheap thing.

There are lots of cheap luggage stores on rue de Rennes, start walking north from Montparnasse metro, for one location. There are also some cheap ones (and on the street) around Hotel de Ville, as I recall, that general area, and there are tons of cheap stores in the Halles shopping forum.

Plenty of place to buy cheap luggage. Ha ha -- they were only half a block from the 'good'(?) street. It really pays to check out a neighborhood in every direction to see what is worthwhile. For basics, I hope they have noticed that my low end Monoprix is also just half a block away. I live just a few steps from it (but I rarely go there!).

Thanks! Monoprix was my first suggestion as well. Thought DD was pretty responsible asking whether/not she can charge new suitcase as I emphatically told her CC was for emergency purposes only. Reason I am trying to help is that it will be my dime for the suitcase, so I want to ensure they are going to Printemps or Galeries Lafayette looking for one!

Send them to Gallieni metro station to the shopping mall with the Auchan hypermarket.

My neice went to London on a six month work visa during her first year of collegs. She had never been away from home. She was with a girl friend and they hooked up with two guys who were just traveling but wanted a base, and rented a two bedroom flat off Edgeware Rd. It is a very ethnic area there and the apartment building was huge, had roaches, and looked like a total fire trap to me, except one of the fire escapes was right outside their window.

I asked her if she was ever nervous about coming back to the flat late at night and she said no. She said sometimes some guys would make kissing noises at her but she just kept going and there was a fight of some kind at the building entrance one night and somebody got stabbed, but she was fine with the area. Her father? Not so much. LOL

She left London the day her visa expired and she's alive and well to this very day, as are her flat mates.

There's a dirt-cheap luggage store on the rue Cler, should they find themselves there.

Lots of cheap luggage on Rue du Temple, just south of Place de la Republique. Or at Clignancourt flea market, between the metro station and the antique area.