Ruth

We will be visiting Paris next October for 3 nights. It will be my husband, two grade school age kids, myself and my mother-in-law. No, I do not want to cook, therefore no need for an apartment. Any hotel ideas on two or three bedroom suites would be helpful. Also location ideas. We will be hitting all the major tourist places, but also would like some local charm. Need ideas from other traveling families. Merci

elaine

Dear Ruth <BR>You will probably need two rooms, <BR>other than the very top hotels I can't think of hotels that offer large suites. <BR>What did you want to spend on accommodations? You don't have to cook in an apartment, by the way, you can go out for every meal if you wish. And some of them have maid service. It's the space that may be the advantage, particularly with a mix of generations.

andy

You might check le Hotel Le Sainte Beuve <BR>We just returned from Paris and stayed <BR>there for a long weekend. They have a <BR>"junior suite" and also "communicating <BR>rooms". There are only 23 rooms ... it's <BR>like being in a private home. Near a <BR>Metro stop in ... breakfast, if you wish <BR>... off the main street in a nice area.. <BR>It's at 9 Rue Sainte-Beuve 75006 <BR>Check &lt;www.hotel-sainte-beuve.fr&gt; and <BR>more info is available. We would return <BR>again.

Christina

You might think about relaxing your criteria as it sounds like it may be hard to fill; like is there any reason you have to all be together in one room? It would be a lot easier just to book two hotel rooms, a double and a triple, and you can figure how you want to split up the group (you+husband vs. ma-in-law+kids or you+one kid and other kid with your mother-in-law unless you don't trust her alone with your children or she can't be alone herself for some reason). I haven't heard of a 3-bedroom suite, but I'm sure at the Ritz or somewhere very expensive you could get anything. However, I do know of two hotels that fit your bill for a 2-rm suite: the Holiday Inn Republique (on place Republique in the 11th arr.) and the Hotel Residence Henri IV in the Latin Qtr (5th arr) on rue Bernardins. Both do have the possibility for reserving two connecting rooms. In case you think the Hol Inn would be like in Ohio, Holiday Inns abroad aren't built or run by the US corporation, abroad they are franchisees and local hotels. This one is actually quite deluxe and has been declared a historic monument, I believe ; it's not small or quaint, though, but very impressive (Napoleon III style?), if you want amenties, it's definitely got them (restaurants, fitness facilities, bar, etc) and one good thing is that hotel does have larger the avg (for Paris) rooms. You can see about it on www.holiday-inn.com and I'm sure many booking places. The other hotel is very nice and in a great location near place Maubert. (BTW, few agencies will rent an apt. for less than a minimum of 5-7 days, anyway--the ones that do are generally not charming or older, but modern, renovated "apartment-hotels" (ie, Citadines or Orion). If you want more service and luxury, I'd go to the HOliday Inn, it's slightly further away from central areas; otherwise, the Res. Henri IV is a very convenient location for seeing Paris, it's not far from the Seine.

Jerald

Left Paris last Fri. Wife & I & 2 teens stayed @ Home Plazza. All suite hotels 1st class, 3 stars superior. Very nice, they have 2 hotels, HP Bastille & HP Republique. I booked the through American Airline Vacations although I did see them on a web site or 2. they have a web site of their own that I can not find at the moment. but if you are intrested & can not find it, e-mail me direct & I will find it