C

Hello,
I'm looking for some help deciding if this is a good neighborhood for an apartment I found through www.vacationinparis.com. We will be staying for one week in July 2007. It is the "Sorbonne one bedroom apartment #28" on their website and is near the south end of Rue Mouffetard close to the St. Medard church. Is this a good market area of the Rue Mouffetard? I know it's a long street and I suppose it varies along its length. We will be doing some cooking and need access to good markets. How about the neighborhood for convenience to areas of interest and walking in general? Are there plenty of restaurant choices nearby? I estimate this is about a ten-minute walk from the Luxembourg Gardens. Though subjective I know, do you consider this neighborhood quintessential Paris with charm and character?

Also, if anyone has stayed in this apartment I'd appreciate your thoughts too.

Thanks helpful Fordorites,
C

vivi

I stayed on rue Mouffetard at the building described in VRBO #41014. I LOVED it, the building is stately and historical, has huge gates (opened by a code) that lead into a private courtyard just off the hustle and bustle of rue Mouffetard. My unit was a studio, too small for 2 people, but they have other options available. It was spotless, modern, had a washer/dryer, kitchenette, internet, plasma TV. The street can be nosiy at night (just people talking, hardly any traffic.) The location you are describing further down on Mouffetard is also a good spot and yes, there are tons of places to eat in that neighborhood. It is close to the Pantheon, I walked to ther Latin Quarter, Notre Dame, St Chapelle, Luxembourg. It is close to the Place Monge Metro stop.

C

Thanks for your reply Vivi. I'm concerned that the "bottom" of Rue Moffetard is too far from major destinations. We love to walk - but is this stretching it to get to areas of interest along the Seine?

Does any one else have opinions about this neighborhood?
Thanks,
C

ira

Hi C,

Enter your address at www.pagesjaunes.fr

You will be able to take a virtual tour of the neighborhood as well as see a map of the area.

kerouac

The entire length of rue Mouffetard is ultra tourist land. You are tourists. Perfect.

hopscotch

I used to live just north of Place Maubert, near the north end of rue Mouffetard. For an opinion on several of your questions and their statements:

The vacationinparis site says: "Besides the central Paris location of the apartment, the real plus of this apartment is the market on rue Mouffetard, less than 5 minutes away by foot."

I guess it depends on what they mean by "central Paris." The #28 is about two miles to Notre Dame, which I would consider central Paris.

#28 is however at the business end of the fascinating market area which extends south and down from Place de la Contrascarpe. The rue Mouf is very steep at both ends with Place de la Contrascarpe on the top in the middle. Make sure you spend some time around the Place, especially in the evening. Read Hemingway’s "Moveable Feast" before you go and bring it with you. Great book.

I don't completely agree with kerouac. The market area near #28 will have some tourists for sure but many of the people are there to buy their cheese and potatoes.

Arm yourself with a Metro map, a carnet of tickets, a good street map, and a Michelin Green Guide to Paris.

C

Thanks for all the great replies. I've been to Paris before but I don't remember exploring this area on a past trip. We don't mind walking to destinations - or using transit. We just want to make sure the neighborhood we stay in has interest as well. I now understand that the Rue Mouffetard is busy with markets on the south or "bottom" end. This is important to us.

Other opinions are welcome. As usual, Fodor's readers are so helpful.

-C

Toupary

C-

This looks like a very nice apartment. I love the neighborhood. I stayed several times near Métro Place Monge, and lived near Jussieu for 4-1/2 months when I first moved to Paris. I love the neighborhood. This is the real Latin Quarter.

Rue Mouffetard is no more touristy than many other parts of Paris, and there is a substantial local population who do their marketing there.

If you do stay there, try Les Délices d'Aphrodite, a wonderful Greek restaurant.

Suzanne2

We recently stayed in the vacationinparis.com studio on Rue Censier. We could not have asked for a better location.

The Airlines lost our luggage (5 days). We were happy to have all the wonderful food, wine and cafes right outside our door. We were forced to wait for the luggage delivery guy who for some reason was not allowed to call us on our cell.

There is a starbucks and a Mono Prix, which saved my life. There is a Nicholas Wine shop with really good prices. We ate at a wonderful little Quiche place on Rue Mouf. As I recall the word Tarte is in the name and another place we enjoyed was a Fondue place that had cute cow staures in the window.My favorite pastry store is at the bottom of the street across from the fountain and specializes in all natural ingrediants. The pain Chocolate was wonderful.

Enyoy your trip I can't wait to go back. We will definately stay in this area again. It was great.

If you get a craving for American food there is a good place called Breakfast in America at the corner of Rue Monge and Ecoles.My husband got his pancake fix and I had a Denver Omelette.

On Rue Mouffetard the Italian Deli has fabulous food to take home. We also got a roasted chicken with potatoes one night that was to die for.

Christina

I almost rented that apt. once (#28), but I thought it was too expensive for what it is (still do) and there were some other things about it I didn't like for that price. The agency wasn't very cooperative in some ways, wouldn't show me a contract for example, and refused to show me a photo of the bedroom or bathroom. I notice they still won't post a photo of the bathroom (and they wouldn't email them, either), although they do of the bedroom. It's been changed, when they first posted the bedroom photo it was more obvious that the room was barely larger than the bed. I think you can still tell that, but the lens distortion makes it look a little bigger.

Anyway, I did stay in that area at another apt. and really like the area a lot. There aren't that many tourists there in comparison to many parts of Paris, and the ones that are are mainly on rue Mouffetard itself for the market (and some cheaper restaurants), but they don't really venture much beyond that. I never found many tourists, if any, in the cafes and restaurants I went into in the surrounding neighborhood (I did in Les Delices once, and it was really good, if you like Greek).

That description is a little optimistic about distance, I would say it is farther than a 10 min. walk to Luxembourg gardens, although maybe not if you really hussle. The apt. isn't quite as close to a metro stop as I would have liked, either (I rented one on rue Mirbel that is only about two blocks from one). It's not quite at the end of Mouffetard, as I recall, the apt. is on rue Berthollet. I might be thinking of another, but what was the address they told you? I think it was that one and so that isn't as close to a metro stop as I prefer. The bus that goes down rue Claude Bernard and right by Berthollet starts up near Luxembourg Gardens, so that's convenient, but that bus can have long waits between stopping and isn't that frequent at night.

Suzanne2

I agree with you about the photo of the bathroom. If you don't have a photo you should be asking some questions. For example is it an overhead or hand held shower. Is there a door on the shower? Is the toilet separated from the bathroom? We were not thrilled with the shower in our apartment. It was hand held and sat in a fixture at about knee level. My husband was really annoyed by this. I had seen the picture and so I was forwarned. I just did not realize how much of a pain this would be.Especially with no shower curtian.
I've had good luck using this agency in the past and I really can't complain too much because I thought the price was really reasonable as compared to hotel room.

Christina

Suzanne, I forgot to ask -- which apt. on there did you rent on rue Censier? I can't figure it out from the apt. names or descriptions, unless I'm missing something.

(also, I realize I left out a word in my sentence on Les Delices -- I ate there once, didn't see a tourist in there one (actually, I didn't notice any tourists in there other than me, I suppose). It caters to Bon Marche or some high end food stores like that. I liked the cafe down at the bottom in front of St Medards, but there are lots of take-out shops for food in-between that point and rue Claude Bernard (on rue de Bazeilles mainly), so you don't have to worry about plenty to eat, including the shops right on Mouffetard and the farmers' market, also.

Suzanne2

Christina, We stayed in No 112. Loved the location but the shower was a pain and we had no English speaking TV. That was only a problem because we were housebound waiting for luggage to be delivered. Normaly I wouldn't care about the T.V.
Our metro was less than a block away. We were directly across from Mediard Church.

amwosu

My 14 yr old son and I stayed in the same building Vivi rented in (with the same management group www.private-paris.com) and we also enjoyed the building and the area. Love the narrow cobblestone street and the market street environment.

My son felt comfortable navigating the metro alone to return to the apt. without me when he got tired of shopping/sightseeing/walking with me.

The area bustles all day long which made me feel safer than if we were in a dead quiet area late at night.

C

Thanks for all of your comments everyone. We have settled on the apartment #28 with www.vacationinparis.com. They offered over 30 email references of people who stayed in that apartment. I contacted around 15 people and they all came back positive (though each were honest about the good and the bad). All the references were very generous with their time and comments. I've never checked references like this for accommodations and found it to be a huge advantage in trying to make a decision. So far, I'd call VIP a great company to work with - very quick replies and lots of information.

Now that we're settled on the apartment, any comments about good restaurants and food shops in the neighborhood would be most appreciated.

Thanks - C

Christina

That is generous, as I don't think I'd do that for some company unless they were willing to give me something in return, as it is basically free marketing for them.

SO, what is the actual address of this place, that affects recommendations.

JCSydney

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Travelnut

Cecile, no advertising on the forums...

francophile03

Rue Mouffetard is a nice place to stay and is not at all far. And it is not any more touristy than Chinatown (13th dist.) is. There are locals who shop and live on the rue Mouffetard and its surroundings.