Hello....I am considering an apartment in the 14th Arrondisement, near the Porte D'Orleans station. It is a 4 bedroom apartment (ideal for my family of 5 plus mother in law) in a 1960s apartment building (Pere Corentin). The neighborhood looks ok (thx to pages jaunes website !). The rent is reasonable (1800 Euros for a week) and I don't mind riding the subways (we got around fine in a similar arrangement 2 years ago in London). From what I have read about the area, this is away from most tourist destinations, but seems accessible to them via public transportation.. I'm interested in any comments/information on the area. thanks !!

As a general comment: if you found getting around easy by London Underground then I think you'll find it even easier to get around by Paris Metro which is much more extensive and pretty much saturates the main part of the city.
Have a wonderful trip.

Two stops north (Denfert Rochereau) will deliver you to a nice area with a market street, cafes, a Monoprix grocery store, a correspondence to Line 6 (kind of east/west direction) and RER Line B. Jardin de Luxembourg is not much farther; Parc Montsouris is very close to d'Orleans and is a lovely park with ponds.

The metro ride to dead center (ie. Notre Dame) will take about 15-20 minutes. This is not bad unless there is a need for frequent trips to the apartment; if you are all out sightseeing for a few hours, maybe returning for a rest, then out again, it won't be too bad. Try the buses, too, that way you can see the passing scenery (sometimes they are crowded, so getting all 5 on at same time might be a challenge.

I'm not sure what's in your immediate neighborhood, but Porte d'Orleans has numerous hotels, and I would think there would be plenty of conveniences nearby.

I have used a hotel in the 14th my last two visits, but not as far away from the center of the city as what you describe.

However, the Denfort
Rochereau area is unique and to me it was not as heavily visited by tourists.

There are plenty of people down that way so there is the usual number of restaurants.
It is heavily residential Paris in my estimation.

On my first trip to Paris I stayed in the 14th--the Denfert-Rochereau metro stop was the closest stop, but still a 15 minute walk. I found that inconvenient, but that was not a fault of the 14th in general.

Maybe Christina will also chime in here, I know she likes part of the 14th

I often stay in the 14th, but no where near that apt, which is the edge of Paris. You can just look on a map and see that. That's the main disadvantage, aside from the fact that those highway ring modern suburbs aren't that interesting, often. However, it is very unusual to find a 4 BR apt, so I don't think you will have much choice in that regard, not at that rate.

I think it will take you longer than 15 min to get to Notre Dame. Actually, I did stay down there one summer at about the same distance from the center(Cite Universitaire stop), and it can be pleasant around that general neighborhood -- great for Parc Montsouris, or walking to Alesia area (or to Denfert, but I usually took the RER). There aren't a lot of restaurants around there and I left the area on Sundays if I wanted to eat out. There are some public housing projects near Porte d'Orleans on bd Brune, I believe.

If you don't mind riding the subways, should be okay. At least that's a good metro line which goes to St-Germain and then the island, directly.

Thanks to all for the info. I do appreciate it.

My sister in law and niece will likely be joining us now, and have found a hotel near Alesia, which is the next subway stop. Does that neighborhood have more in the way of restaurants ?

mayorl, have you see the http://www.pagesjaunes.fr site?

It allows you to input the address of the hotel and "walk" through the surrounding streets. I think you can also locate all restaurants and grocery stores or whatever within a given radius.

Mayorl did check the pages jaunes already.

yes - that is a very useful website - it will be interesting to see how the neighborhood compares to the pictures !

My daughter is at the Cite Universite right now and I visited her in March. I thought the area was quite pleasant, residential, some parks. She says she finds buses more convienient than the metro much of the time. Might be more than 15 minutes to Ile de la Cite from there but certainly less than half an hour. She seems to go into the center of town at least a couple times each day (classes are in the 5th, she lives at the cite univ) and doesn't complain about the distance.

In the interest of closing out this thread, let me report that we stayed in this apartment for a week earlier this month. The area was residential, with about a 5 minute walk to the metro. The 4 line was indeed a good metro - we quickly became fans of the Paris metro. There were plenty of restaurants and grocery stores nearby - I enjoyed getting takeout from several restaurants and food places - that worked very well with the kids.

We very much enjoyed our time in Paris. The apartment was spacious, with 4 bedrooms and a large living / dining room on the second floor. We walked about 10 minutes to Parc Montsouris. I'm ready to go back ! Thanks to the group for all your suggestions.....