Hi guys!! My husband and I will be in Paris France ON mAY 9TH and are having a bit of trouble understanding the Right bank?Left bank and arrondissementS?Which is safer?Cleaner? Easy to get to the different sites?We are both 28.We are looking for nice clean accomadations with bath and Ac.Also we like to shop and want to see the E.tower,Louvre, Notre Dame etc.We are looking for up to $150 a night. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.We will be in paris 4nights.

Just a thought, but you probably won't need a/c in May. I'm sure you'll get tons of recommendations for hotels from the Paris experts.

I'm not a Paris expert, having only spent one (wonderful) week there, but we were very happy with our hotel, which we found in Sandra Gustafson's Cheap Sleeps in Paris book. It's the Hotel Sully Saint-Germaine, a 3 star hotel, on the left bank (5th arrondissement, also called the Latin Quarter). This is the university area, so there are lots of shops, restaurants, and theatres in the neighborhood. The metro is nearby, and it is right across the bridge from Notre Dame. The rooms were sizeable and clean, the breakfasts were great, and the staff was very helpful.<BR>31, rue des Ecoles<BR>75005 Paris<BR>Tel: 011-33-1-43-26-56-02<BR>Fax: 011-33-1-43-29-74-42<BR>doubles $115-150<BR>

Ok we can leave out the AcHow cold is it??I haven't looked into the weather I guess I should. We will be in spain also the week before for 10 days and I think it's pretty warm.As far as what we are packing it's all for warm weather.Thanks for the Hotel info.Please keep them coming.

Hello, if I were you I would finalize your plans today, especially since you have a certain budget requirement and location considerations. There is a terrific book put out by Fodor's called Hotels of Character and Charm in Paris. Lots of colorful photos, honest descriptions and a wide range of prices. The hotel I always recommend is Grand Hotel des Balcons, which I got from the above mentioned book. Under $110.00 centrally located next to the Luxembourg Gardens in the 6th, art deco b-fest room and terrific staff. But, chances are they are already booked up for May, Bon Voyage!

If you do not have a hotel reserved now for Paris in May, you may end up taking what is available. Reserve somewhere soon because I know from other posters and friends that popular hotels like Bersolys and other left bank favorites are booked. The Muguet is fully booked until June 20th. So that should be a distinct warning that you better hurry up. If I were in your shoes, I would access the Best Western Website and start checking everything in Paris, NOW.<BR>If that fails, then a larger hotel lister can be found at http://www.france-hotel-guide.com/75paccue.htm<BR><BR>If you have trouble finding a place, let me make a suggestions. Call the Acacias St. Germaine on Rue de Rennes. I do not necessarily recommend the hotel after staying there two years ago, but the owner/manager was assertive in finding rooms for tourists because she was fully booked for weeks. If you get the owner/manager, she speaks excellent English. <BR>But she is there only during the day, which is about 9 until 5 Paris time. <BR><BR> I am not sure about your left bank versus right bank question.<BR>If you don't know, it can be difficult to follow some of the discussions.<BR>Simply put, the right-left stuff is based on going down stream on the Seine.<BR>The Louvre, the Marais district, the Champs d' Elysee are on the right bank.<BR>Notre Dame is on an island; Musee d'Orsay, Hotel Invalides, the Rodin Museum, and the Eiffel Tower are on the left bank. <BR><BR>The Arrondissements are numbered subdivisions inside of the circumferential highway that rings Paris. The first Arr is located on the Seine and includes the Louvre and the Tuileries Gardens. The numbers then spiral outwards clockwise.<BR>The double digit Arrs are the farthest away from the Seine; Arrs 1 through 8 touch the Seine at some point. (As do some of the others, but farther out from "central" Paris.)<BR>When we speak of left bank and right bank we often do with the somewhat tacit <BR>understanding that Arrs 5, 6, and 7 are the primary areas on the left bank. Arrs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8 are right bank. (8 is the area west of Place del la Concorde, which is the place where heads were removed during the Reign of Terror.)<BR>If you have to find a hotel in a double digit Arr, 14, 15, and 16 are ok. Arr 13 is ok, too as far as I know.)<BR>I stayed last year in a hotel on the north side of the 14th and it was a great place. <BR>I don't think you will need AC in May, but we definitely were better off for having it in September. <BR>Good Luck. I just hope you find something that is not a flea bag, or $230 a night.

If you do not have a hotel now, this second, for Paris on May 9, 2001, I suggest you let no more grass grow under your feet. I just checked and found that the Hotel Muguet is full until June 20.<BR>I know from others that some of the other more popular hotels are also full for May.<BR>I have two search suggestions:<BR>1. Go to the Best Western Search site, international section, and start looking for hotels in Paris. As soon as you find one with rooms for your time period, take it. These hotels are not cookie cutter American clones; they are Parisian hotels that are affilitated with Best Western for various reasons.<BR>2. If the Best Western route fails, then you need a wider group to choose from. Try this place:<BR>http://www.france-hotel-guide.com/75paccue.htm I personally would start with Arr 8, and work my way in reverse order through 15, 15, 14, and 13 on the assumption that if the Best Westerns are full, the others are too.<BR>3. If all else fails, call the Hotel Acacias Saint Germaine on Rue de Rennes. The owner/manager is fairly assertive in finding hotels for desperate tourists. Call during the day however because she is usually there from about 9 until 5 Paris time. I cannot recall her name, but has some ownership in the hotel and speaks English as a first language; French is the second one.<BR><BR>As for the left bank right bank terminology, it all has to do with the Seine river. As you go downstream toward the Atlantic Ocean, the attractions on your left are on the left bank; the ones on your right are on the right bank. Take a look at most any map of Paris and you will see what I mean.<BR>The Louvre, Place de la Concorde, the Mariais, Champs d' Elysee, the Tuileries Gardens,etc are all on the right bank.<BR>The Eifel Tower, Musee d'Orsay, Invalides, and the Rodin Museum are left bank attractions. <BR>The numbered Arrondissements are subdivisions of Paris inside of the ring highway. Arr 1 is on the right bank and includes the Louvre. The numbers then spiral out clockwise from there.<BR>Arrs 5, 6, and 7 are the principal districts from the tourist point of view which border on the left bank of the Seine. <BR>But don't delay any more. Get a hotel now.

Here is another web site to check on hotels.<BR>http://www.parishotels.com/index.en.html

Hi Maritza:<BR><BR>I've been to Paris twice in the last 3 years (love it!) and recommend both hotels that we stayed at: Hotel Belmont (near the Champs d'Elysse) and Hotel St. James et Albany (right across the street from the Louvre). A great website for hotel packages and info is www.filfrank.com. Frank really got us a great package the last time we were there, including Metro passes and museum cards. I was there the last time the first week of May (1999) and it was 75 degrees every day. A/C should definately be a requirement.<BR><BR>Have a wonderful trip - hope you love Paris as much as I do<BR><BR>Julie

Try Hotel La Motte Picquet. It'snear Rue Cler [on the corner] and doesn't fill up as fast as the forum "faves." We've stayed there twice and been very satified. Do a search for motte picquet on this forum and you'll get my more extensive comments.

I've recently found a good web site for information on moderate to higher priced hotels throughout France, and they tell you right online if there are vacancies for your specified dates and about how many rooms in each hotel are free, which is a good indicator of your odds of really getting the booking, as I'm sure they can't have it accurate to the minute. It's French Hotel Reservations and you can reach it through www.france.com (click on hotels info at top left of home page), or here is the direct URL: http://digital.france.com/hotels/index.html<BR>I just checked on your dates out of curiosity and they came up with a pretty decent list of 2-3 star hotels (you can search by price are area, Latin Qtr includes St-Germain) on the Left Bank with vacancies; I would be satisfied booking at least a half dozen from their list, eg, the Hotel de l'Odeon; the Aviatic is a nicely-located 3-star hotel near Luxembourg Gardens that you do not hear much about, it appears to be good value for the money, I've stayed near there and liked the area and the appearance of it from the outside (and they recently put in AC, I believe). I have used this URL for booking hotels in Provence recently as I was getting sluggish replies from the hotels themselves, and their response time was excellent (overnight) and they don't try bait and switch; unfortunately, the hotel I wanted wasn't available so I did not go through with the reservation with them, however, I did eventually hear from that hotel by email maybe 5 days later, and they were indeed booked (in response to a personal email from me before I tried the booking site). Their rates are pretty good, also, sometimes appear to be discounts, espec. in comparison to www.hotelboulevard.com which is a good resource but sometimes their rates look high to me (I think they may only offer the upper rate range of a category). One thing I particularly like about digital.france.com is the customer comments, and I have seen negative ones. So, I were you I would consider using something like that at this time point, maybe choose several hotels that appeal to you and then query the Fodors board on final recommendations (unless you are not that picky, some people debate and poll forever, I would not recommend that or you may miss out). BTW there is someone on these boards who complains about that web site saying they somehow charged her credit card for a hotel and then told her it was unavailable and wouldn't refund or something, I forget, but I am pretty sure she is mixing up the name of another web site with a similar name and her experience is not really with French Hotel Reservations at digital.france.com, but I think she is referring to a site that charges 6 pct commission, based in London, named France Hotel Reservations, a very similar name, I agree. (I could be wrong but I remember someone very similar in tone complaining about the latter and then she posted the same complaint about digital.france)

If you're having trouble finding a hotel on such short notice, one place to try is hoteldiscounts.com. This is a consolidator that purchases blocks of rooms in advance, and often has rooms available even when the hotel otherwise indicates that its sold out.

Christina is right on with digital.france. We have used it very successfully and it gives you instant feedback about hotels' availability (providing lists for area and price) so you don't have to wait for e-mails. You just put in the price and the area and voila--a list of hotels available. I would recommend the 3-4th (Marais), 5th (Latin Quarter), 6th (St. Germain), or the 7th (Invalides) for areas. If you can't access digital.france, try www.france.com<BR>

Hi Maritza...have a glass of french champagne for me when you are in Paris, May 9 is my birthday!!!<BR><BR>Happy travels to you, you will love PARIS. I recommend as another person did Parishotels.com, they have LOTS to pick from and many price ranges .