I'm going to Paris for the first time in a couple of weeks with very good friends. We independently had decided that if we ever went to Paris we wanted to stay at the Hotel du Jeu de Paume on the Ile Ste Louis. Have we made a good decision, based on anyone's past experiences? I'd love to hear feedback about this hotel and also about Ile Ste Louis.

We stayed at the Hotel de Lutece on the Ile St Louis in June 2003 and liked it very much. We loved the location -- it's hard to believe you are in the middle of Paris -- and found it very convenient. We could walk to Notre Dame or the nearest right bank Metro station within 5 minutes.

I have not personally stayed at the Jeu de Palme, but it is considerably more expensive than the de Lutece. Presumably it is also more luxurious. If you do a search on here, you should find quite a bit of info.

Have you tried tripadvisor.com for comments on the hotel?

If you already have reservations and are going to stay there, it doesn't really matter at this point what others think. It would have made more sense to ask before you made the reservations. That is a very busy time of year in Paris, so it's unlikely that you could easily switch hotels anyway, even if everyone said it was a terrible choice. Why get preconceived ideas of the experience, just take things as they come and then make a hotel review back here for others to see, if you want.

lolosmama, I don't think you need to be concerned about the Jeu de Palme. My cousin and her family stayed there in 2003 and thought it was fantastic. At that time it was about E300/night, while the de Lutece was E150. (The two hotels are almost across the street from each other.)

and not to get too touchy-feelly, but if a millenia is 1000 years ... you'll be walking on streets originally settled then by the Parisi "tribe"...
Those old buildings on a rainy night, the golden glow of lights on the wet cobblestones?
It will be splendid!

We stayed at the Jeu de Paume several years ago and loved it. The room was tiny, the bathroom was tiny but the ambiance of the hotel and its location was everything. Our room (overlooking an interior courtyard) was blessedly quiet at night.

The island is a little self-contained world unto itself. On the same street as the hotel is just about everything you'd need for daily life: bread, wine, meat, fish, cheese, cafes, ice cream (!). I read in a guidebook that there are old-timers living on the island who rarely walk across a bridge into Paris. They think of St. Louis as separate from the surrounding city.

You will like the hotel, and you will enjoy being on the Isle.....don't worry about it!!!