Marbie, were you in the Pomerol? :)

We were in the Cabernet. The day bed in the living room separated into 2 good sized single beds for the kids.Here is the link:
http://www.parisperfect.com/cabernet...-in-paris.html

We are also a family of four, heading to Paris for the first time this June. The apartment idea doesn't work for us, because we are only there four nights. (Besides, on vacation, I don't want to deal with dishes and groceries!) And finding a quad room or family suite isn't easy in Europe.
From what I've read, the 7th looks perfect for us, since we'd prefer a more quiet, upscale area, plus seeing the Eiffel Tower at night will be wonderful and being close to Les Invalides.
We found Hotel la Bourdonnais which had a quad for $225 on Expedia. It has good, if relatively mixed reviews on tripadvisor. Rick Steves recommends it and calls it "tres Parisian", which I interpret as shabby chic and maybe not terribly tourist-friendly from other reviews I've read. But still it looks ideal for us. I'll post a trip report when we return, but that won't be till late June. It's a three-star, and the website is http://www.hotellabourdonnais.com/

Hi jgg,

Here are some pix of the Bonaparte.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...&y=-l95uyr

((I))

Several years ago we stayed with my family at Hotel Passy Eiffel. Great rate and we loved this residential neighborhood-safe feeling and just a very quick walk to the metro. Good luck!

When you rent an apartment, it includes all the dishes, sheets etc. You don't need to worry about these items. You also don't need to use the dishes if you don't want to. But its sure nice to have glasses available, including wine glasses, for beverages, instead of going out. The people who rented the apartment next door to us were only there for 4 nights. We rented for 8 nights. So it does have to be weekly.

I also forgot, we stay in alot of quad rooms also, but it is soo nice to have the separate rooms for the kids, once in awhile. None of us have ever complained about the extra space.

I agree, it is nice to come back from sightseeing, pour a glass of wine and put some cheese and bread out and just sit on the sofa. Of course, all of these things can be done in a hotel room. I think doing it in an apt is mostly aside from providing much more room, gives that illusion that you actually are living there :)
Marbie, we were in the Pomerol.
And I still want the Nepresso coffemaker that they had!

jgg, here's a page from Tom's Guide to Paris which might be helpful to you. It describes the different neighborhoods. Take a look at the rest of his guide, too. It makes for some pretty entertaining reading. Tom says it like he sees it.

http://troi.cc.rochester.edu/~tdip/w...y_in_paris.htm

Ira,

Love the picture with the cat. Is he the owner?

Mermaid: Thanks for the link to Tom's Guide of Paris I really enjoyed reading it! He is a hoot and I appreciate his honest opinion.

Scarlett & Marbie: I love the apts. from Paris Perfect! After 14 days in Italy with no washer/dryer that alone is leaning me towards one of these apts. Plus they really look spectacular. Here is my question: We found that often my husband and son would come back to the room to rest in the late afternoon and my daughter and I would go back out and go shopping, just wandering through stores, boutiques, little shops. I would like to be close to that so we wouldn't have to take any transportation to find that. Is that possible in the area of these apartments or would we be better off in St. Germain or the Latin Quarter??

Ira: Thank you for the picture link, unfortuantely everytime I try the link to look at the pictures it says this page is unavailable.

jgg; I don't recall much in the way of shopping in this area. Lots of cafe's and food shop though. We do the same thing as a family though. My husband and son had different interests in Paris then my daughter. We would sight see together and then split up. The 'boys' would go back to the apartment and rest, and my daughter & I would linger somewhere for shopping. We found the bus very convinent for the apartment. It literally went right past the apartment. So we were always comfortable coming back on our own. The subway was a 10 mintue walk away. We loved shopping in Paris!

It is so easy to get to the different areas that we are never "hampered" by the location of our hotel.
The area around the Pomerol is very nice, some really good shopping. As well as a walk away to the St Germain area.
If you want to be in the heart of shopping, the 1st or the 6th would be my choices..but then, I find a place to shop wherever I am :D ( I can hear the Yankee sigh as I say that lol)