It has been my experience that if you must stay in a non-central area in Paris the next most important factor is the proximity of the closest metro stops and the number of different metro lines nearby. You will quickly learn to use this variety of lines to good advantage. For example, the Place D'Italie has 3 intersecting lines and the Place de la Bastille is much the same.

Underhill - Are you speaking of the rue St Denis, 1er arrondisement? If so, this was the worst stay of my total Paris experiences. As a woman traveling with a child, we made sure we were back in our room before dark each night. Too many boarded up buildings, and a mostly immigré youth area. What could have been a nice little square down the street was constantly taken over by youths break-dancing with boom-boxes, lots of yelling and jiving, etc. The public trashcans were overflowing, discarded dirty diapers all over the place. Geez, what a fright! And if you can believe, this place was recommended in Frommer's Budget Travel magazine as one of the little gems of Paris for under 100€ per night! I really didn't like the entire Les Halles area. But this is what you get sometimes when you travel on the fly. I bought the tickets on a Friday and flew out on Monday. Not much time to find a decent, affordable place in June! Well, live and learn. You couldn't pay me to go back to this area.

I would not stay where the nearest metro stop was also an RER station. Or, I'd use another station, especially late at night.

I stayed for part of one trip near Les Halles and I would never stay there again. it was busy and loud for 22 hours of each 24. the neighborhood lacked charm and was dirty.

tinarose - glad to see somebody agrees with me about the les halles area. everytime i have ever knocked it, the post is bombarded with comments about how wrong my view of the area is. but invariably, a parisian or two will always come to the rescue saying it is an area they would not stay in themselves!

crepes_a_go_go! What a GREAT name!