Yeah, what WillTravel said.

I'm happy as heck for all you stair jumpers, but my feet would not respond well to 3 flights of stairs after pounding Paris pavements all day.

Exercise is wonderful, but I get quite enough from being on my feet for long days, seeing loads sights. I'm not really going to Paris for a workout.

If I could stay in a huge fancy hotel with padded seats in brocaded elevators, I would. Pipe in a little classical music, and I'll be in heaven.

Would they serve chocolates in the elevator, do you think?

We rented a Paris apartment on the 7th floor of a very nice building with an elevator. It was great -- until one night when we came back to our building and found the elevator didn't work and we had no idea where the door to the stairs was. We buzzed a few apartments and finally someone answered -- and fortunately spoke excellent English. She was able to explain where we could find the very well concealed door, which led to a turret style staircase -- a winding staircase with a rope railing. Tne elevator was out for the last 3 days of our stay. We travel with carry-ons only, but it still wasn't fun going down that staircase with our luggage when we left. Our apartment for our next trip is on the ground floor.

While reading descriptions of apartments, one of my favorites is "only four extremely short flights up". Huh?
Most floor are at least 8 or 9 feet apart. They have to be for people to stand up in those lower apartments. If the four flights are extremely short and not 8 or 9 feet worth, what does that mean? You've found a building that primarily only rents to "little people" and has four floors of apartments with 4 foot high ceilings?

I recently rented an apartment in Paris that was on the 3rd floor (our 4th) with no elevator. My suitcase was not light and I make no apologies for the fact. Yes, my arm ached for a few days after I got the suitcase up the stairs and luckily no neighbors yelled about the thump, thump, thumping. I have stairs at home so other than carrying the suitcase, the stairs weren't really a problem.

I sometimes feel that those carry-on only folks are somewhat condescending toward those of us with greater needs. That's ok, I'm sure we suit-casers look better!

We stayed in a 3rd floor apartment in Florence which advertised a lift. When we arrived and were checking in we were told that the lift was out of order. No problem, we thought. However, I would have to say that sometimes at the end of a long day, I could feel a little tear making its way down my cheek as I surveyed those stairs!!

However, on Santorini we had 100 stairs from our hotel room to reception. It definitely taught me to think about what I needed to take with me, as there was no question of dashing back to the room for anything!!

Back to Paris...... I love that there are stairs and we walk a lot. It means that instead of muesli and skim milk, I can have croissant for breakfast every morning and yes, I come home weighing less!! Yay!!

Kerouac - you are a very good son. I recall a report of yours some time ago when your mother was ill or broke her ankle, I can't quite remember, and was driving you to distraction.