QueenMab

We stayed at the Grandes Ecoles and liked it very much. We stayed in the "main building," which is supposed to be less desirable, but we had a pretty room (yes, with flowers!) with a little balcony overlooking a leafy alley. The only "noise" we heard was the children in the nearby school singing in the mornings! The staff was friendly and helpful, and the location was great.

newtraveller

I e-mailed both the Lux and the Royal Phare. who are both quoting around 85E a night for a triple.

Sounds to good to be true, but I suppose I will be getting what I pay for, which is fine for our budget minded family.

PTDreamer

Stayed at the GHL about 4 years ago. While the room was nothing special, the street, rue cler, was wonderful and we spent alot of time on that street and nearby streets.
Alot of bakeries, delis etc...right there. One day we went shopping up and down the street and put together a picnic lunch of goodies from the delis and walked to Rodins' house and garden and had a picnic amongst the sculptures.
And, the metro is right around the corner, and also fabulous bistros. So nice, so french.

elaine

picnicking in Rodin's garden--never thought of it, wouldn't have assumed it is permissible, what a lovely idea!
thanks

Travelnut

There is a cafe in the gardens at the Rodin - won't they object to someone bringing in a picnic? Or were you referring to the cafe tables alongside the garden walk?

Keren

Hi Newtraveller,
Try the Hotel Résidence les Gobelins. It's a good budget hotel, very clean, run by very nice people. The location is great, quiet and residenatial but with lots of cafes and restaurants, close to the rue Mouffetard market, metro station right next to the hotel. They offer a triple for 89 E.
http://www.hotelgobelins.com/
It's recommended by Fodors (with quite a few good comments by readers) and almost all comments on tripadvisor.com are very positive.

francophile03

I stayed at the Abbatial St. Germain. There is a/c. It has small double rooms of course. But if you get a larger room-a triple-and ask for a 5th or 6th floor room with a view, they will give you one. At least they guaranteed a 5th floor room to me when I booked a few months in advance. It's only a block or from the Seine. Nice location.

elaine

Any other comments on the Abbatial?
Attractive? Comfortable? Convenient?
Breakfast?

miss_emery

hi there newtraveller - i have not stayed at this place myself, however when i was planning my own trip to paris last september i had considered the hotel eber mars (www.hotelseber.com i think). my husband and i decided not to stay there b/c their website did not have any pictures on it yet, and we had heard it had just been renovated so we weren't sure if it was quite done yet and didn't want to stay without any visuals. I just checked out their finished website, and it seems that everything is done now and looks really nice - again, i can't say i've stayed there but i would personally give it a try if i wanted to stay in the seventh. they have triple rooms, and a family room, and are priced in your range i believe. <p>We decided not to stay at the levecque because, although my sister in law had a fine time there on a recent trip, we thought we wanted to return to someplace with a bit more charm at the end of the night - my impression of the leveque was that it's very bare bones. we took a chance on a different hotel that i hadn't read much about and were quite pleased that we did - i had spent so much time obsessing about finding the perfect affordable hotel that in some ways i was actually dreading the seeing what we were ending up with, b/c i had no idea what to really expect since we hadn't seen many reviews. we got there and had a great time and loved our hotel, and in retrospect i wished i had not spent weeks obsessing about the hotels b/c all of them had great reviews and would have done the trick. And at the end of the day, we were in Paris! There are certainly more than one or two good places to stay in paris on a budget, so feel confident in your decision, don't second-guess yourself too much and just have the most wonderful time ever! It will be a fabulous trip, summertime will be beautiful! <p>side note: our final choice of hotel was on the edge of the 6th/7th and we walked almost everywhere.

newtraveller

Miss Emery--

Thanks for the reassurance.

I am obsessing and wish I could stop, but I am also really enjoying the planning of the trip.

Do you mind me asking where you stayed?

miss_emery

i only didn't say where b/c i started to feel that i must sound like a shill! we stayed at the hotel st. thomas d'aquin - if you do a search above you can find my other posted comments about the place. In line with what travelnut said regarding decor.... we were trying to find a place that suited our tastes, as I am personally not fond of the chintz or floral motifs that are often used in the budget hotels. I think I would prefer no attempt at style to bad attempts! Of course this is a matter of personal taste, and luckily we found someplace cheap and charming (to our liking, at least). have fun!

oh, and believe me, I understand the planning compulsion... It is (fortunately? unfortunately? ) a part of every trip i take, however big or small, much to my husband's chagrin. even though i can get caught up in it, it is still at times almost as fun as being there! I don't travel enough to not make a big deal about it whenever i go anywhere, you know? maybe someday....! I had such great expectations of paris, though, that finally i just had to let my plans go and enjoy whatever experiences came my way. and i am already mentally planning my next trip there, of course!

Morganne

Have a look at the Hotel Prince Albert Wagram...They have triple room for about 80€ in July..it is a sweet 2 star hotel, very clean and with very nice people...I stayed once in this hotel in a double room and I was really happy to stay there, it is in a quite street and at about 15 minuts from the Champs Elysees!
http://www.princealbert-wagram.com
Have a good trip!