Family Apartment Outside of Paris?
 

Can anyone recommend an area to stay outside of the city of Paris? We'd like to have an apartment rental, as we are a family of two adults and four kids (possibly also a set of grandparents traveling, for a total of 8 people). We are hoping that by staying outside Paris, close enough to day trip in, we can avoid the high hotel/apartment costs in Paris. Also, it might be convenient if the location outside of Paris has a train connection to Paris. Any suggestions?

We just booked a room in a gite in Provins, just outside of Paris, and a short distance for Disney, and Versailles. I noticed that they had an apartment unit also. The place is called "la Ferme du Chatel" We haven't stayed there yet(we will this month), so I don't know the condition. I don't have their email address, just their street address=5 rue de la chapelle Saint Sean Fax is 01 64 00 10 99 <BR>I found it on the Office of Tourism website for Provins, France. The room was only 480 Ff per night for four with breakfast. I believe the apartment was about 700FF which is good too.

There is an establishment called Country Cottages that books cottages in the countryside--I believe they even have a special if you are traveling with grandparents. I have never had the opportunity to use them, but you might want to check it out at www.villacentral.com

Thanks! Any further advice out there?

Try: <BR>http://www.france-holiday-homes.co.uk/ <BR>http://www.franceok.com/ile_de_france.htm <BR>http://www.sosdriver.com/aei/#4rooms <BR>http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/pages/doc00603.htm <BR> <BR>When I started a search for accommodations in Perigord, I got some responses 'not available' BUT the owner would often suggest a neighbor who had a rental available. <BR> <BR>Anything in the Ile-de-France is within a trainride; if you are renting cars, you'll have a greater range of accommodation choices. <BR> <BR>

I think it would be better if you stated what your cost expectations are, as I suspect this won't really save you money, not to mention all the time you'll spend commuting. You can easily get hotels in the closer-in suburbs or within Paris for 400F or less for a double. Paris has a wide variety of accommodation costs, if you look in the less-expensive areas (ie, 13th-14th, 11-12th, 19th-20th arrondisements), it shouldn't be much more, if any, than staying in the suburbs. Even though Paris might be more expensive as a city, because it's a tourist destination there is much more available and more organization. I think it will be difficult for you to find vacation apartments for rent in smaller surburban towns. If you do decide to do this, I'd recommend you stay in a place with a stop on the RER suburban train line, not the regular SNCF train line. It would cost lots for train travel for 6-8 people daily to and from Paris--a whole lot if you don't have a RER pass and use the regular trains. Even if the fare were only $10 a person one-way, that's close to $200 a day RT for eight people. I don't know what kind of railpasses you were thinking of and I'm not sure about France railpass discounts for large groups or children, but for indiv adults, a SNCF railpass has a large sunk cost and then is $30 a day for second class for adults, so that won't be cost-effective (it's more than buying a ticket for short-distance travel). For example, I think Provins is not that easy to get to from Paris by train and is not on the RER line; that's one reason I've avoided going there just as a simple day trip from Paris, so I don't think that would be convenient to stay there. Maybe things have changed, I haven't checked routes lately (used to involve train+bus or transfer at least and took a while). A gite might be the best bet if you want to do this as I don't think you'll find apartments in the usual agencies for cheap Paris suburbs. Gites aren't always what they started out being (rural houses), many are just modern apartments/condos the owners rent out to tourists, but that might be the best source for smaller suburban towns. I could not find any info on their WEBsite, however, it all looked blank on my computer(www.france-gites.com). If it were me and I were staying in the burbs, I'd stay in St-Germain-en-Laye or Neuilly or St-Denis or Montreuil, they are all on the RER lines (but not likely cheap, St-Denis and Montreuil would be the cheapest, I think). So, I think you should state what you want to spend per day and what you were expecting to spend on rail transportation per day for 6-8 people for someone to best address your query.

Yes...thanks. I should have put the price range in my text. We were hoping to keep the price to around $200/night in the Paris area, but that $200 would need to accomodate 8 people. I have had such a hard time finding apartments "outside" of Paris (and corresponding transportation to make it worthwhile) that we have started to think that we might be better off looking for a nice hotel that would accomodate families. We aren't looking for anything in the "luxury" category, but clean, comfortable, and in a safe area (also, preferably, not just part of a big hotel chain).