Checking out apartments in Paris for a family of 4. Need advice what reliable site to use coz there are so many. Friends are recommending the Le Marais district. Would you recommend it, we are in our early 40's with 2 girls ages 11 and 15.

This site will give you some info on the Marais area.
WWW.PARISMARAIS.COM
I have stayed in the Marais area, near on on the PLACE DES VOSGES area for my last 3 trips.
I love the area. A good place to window shop small boutiques, good restaurants, close to public transportation. A real neighborhood feel.Enough small food stores and bakeries to buy food for my apartment.
I also love to walk and I find that I walk to most places that I am interested in going to.
I have walked to most of the museums, department stores , churches, restaurants and parks that I am interested in seeing.
Also very convenient to the River Seine for the fun boat trips.
Hope this helps. I am sure that whatever district you decide to go to you will love.
Enjoy your trip

We had good experiences (two rentals) from VacationInParis. Both rentals were exactly as described, and no surprises.

If you do a search here, there are quite a few recommendations on rentals.

Marais is OK, I could also see the 5th/6th as being good too.
Part of the asnwer is cost, access to Metro, nearby parks,etc.. You can also use websites (lie Google Earth) to have a "look" at the area

There are many Marais apartments listed at www.rentparis.com.

W have rented several times from Vacation In Paris and have been delighted with their service. Our last rental in Oct was in Le Marais, Apt 201 Garden delight. It was perfect. A quuen bed and a sleeper sofa, fully equipped kitchen, washer/dryer, seperate WC,and a beautiful patio in a very secure building. There were several bus line right outside the front door, the metro and a taxi stand a few yards down the street. I didn't use the washer because French ones take forever. There was a laundromat right next door that wash and dried thing quickly. There was a fantastic vegetable shop right across the street, also a fromagerie, a super market and 2 Patisserie/boulangeries. Also several cafes within steps We really enjoyed our meals at Le BOuquet St Paul and Pizza Mama. The Place Marche St Catherine is right aroud the corner with 5 or so cafe/restaurants.The apt was a short walk to Bastille and to the Thus and Sun Richard Lenoir market. I'd stay ther again in a hearbeat. Alsofree Wifi, no security deposit and you get the keys and info before you leave home.

Many sections of the 5th and 6th are good for families, with access to the Luxembourg gardens and other sights. Marais is nice as well.

Pay attention to the ease of getting to what you want to see and proximity to metro stations with good connections.

Here’s a link to a Metro map:

http://www.ratp.info/orienter/f_plan...reseaux&fm=pdf

Look at this thread: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ent-thread.cfm. Also at www.slowtrav.com. The latter has reviews of specific rental units which include a review of how the rental agency was to work with. All that should keep you busy for a while.

Several of the agencies are just listing boards for individual owners. The experience one renter has depends on that owner and won't necessarily transfer to another apartment with a different owner.

We are in our mid 40s with a boy age 14 and a girl age 10. We stayed in the Marais over Thanksgiving weekend and loved it. Want to go back. Now.

We almost always rent an apartment when we travel. When booking this trip, it seemed like all of the apartments I was eyeing on HomeAway.com were part of this agency: www.parisautrement.com so we went with them and found ourselves in a place that was as beautiful in person as it looked on their website. They specialize in apartments in the Marais.

Consider getting the Paris Mueseum pass; not only do you get to cut lines with it, but it also take some of the burden off of feeling like you have to see EVERYTHING in a museum. We were around the corner from the Pompidou Center and so popped in one night for about an hour, mainly to ride the very cool exterior escalator and check out the views from the top. But we also looked at some of the amazing modern art housed there; likely would not have done that without the ease (and pre-payment) of the pass. Have a great trip.

Thanks for all your tips.