Does anyone have any feedback on the Le Marais district? We found some nice spots on VRBO located there - looks like it's in both the 3rd and 4th arrondissements.

At the risk of sounding ignorant, some of my research says it's a gay hotspot. While I have no issue with that, I'm curious if we're going to inadvertently walk into gay clubs because we don't know the area haha. Maybe not a bad thing, could be highly entertaining!

Well along with being one of Paris' gay Parisian gay meccas the Marais is also a bastion of Jewish culture and there are many restaurants appealing to a mixed crowd.

I have often walked thru the Marais at night and its narrow lanes - about the only such ones in a Paris that Hausmann leveled and put in broad avenues in the 1800s - is thronged in nice weather and there is no overt gay dominance IMO ('not that there's anything wrong with that') - just a neat warm feeling.

The area is well located, being within a reasonable walk from Notre-Dame, the Latin Quarter, the Pompidou Center, the Place Vosges, etc.

I would like that area myself.

We stayed in the Marais once (rented an apartment). It was May and I found the area crowded, more crowded than I like. I prefer something more residential in feeling. However, the Marais is very central.