Just booked Hotel Grand Hommes for week with my mother, who is 80, and am worried that the walk to the subway is too long. Looked on map but it's hard to gauge how long those blocks will feel. Should i switch to one of the owners' other hotels? Perhaps Sorbonne> Or is it silly to worry about the difference of a block or two. Her back gets sore, so she may be taking taxis anyway. thanks everyone. you're always so helpful.
Thanks.

You have to consider that in many stations there is a lot to walk and there are a lot of stairs.
It will be better not to use the metro, but the bus.

I agree that if you are worried about walking an extra block, you probably shouldn't be considering the metro/RER that much to begin with. If her back really gets sore, those stairs in the metro/RER may be worse than just walking a block. Besides, the RER stop near that hotel (Luxembourg) isn't on a metro line, so she'll probably be transferring a lot, any way. It's a good stop, though, it is relatively small and has an escalator. But it's not going to be the only one she uses, of course.

Even if she takes the bus (and there are some along bd St Michel and who stop around the end of rue Soufflot), she's going to have to walk about the same distance as to the RER stop.

IF you are really talking about the metro stop (Cluny?), yeah, it is farther than you'd probably want.

I would avoid a lot of metro'ing (is that a verb?)

- Concentrate on one area with multiple attractions to do... take a cab there in the morning, take a cab home when you are ready to go home.

- Pick a hotel that has many dinner choices nearby to avoid lots of walking. Even consider doing take out in your room to rest. I know it isn't common like the states, but if you explained why, owners are very sympathetic.

- Plan the trip like you would with kids - lots of stops for hot chocolate, ice cream, etc. (The fruit stands are *wonderful* for selling one piece of fruit!)

- Instead of stopping in parks to play, plan on stopping in parks to sit on a bench and watch life go by.

- Go to the Tuileries. sit, enjoy. Have lunch there. Watch the kids go by on the pony rides, watch the people walking their bikes through the park, watch the kids with sailboats in the pond.

- Go up in the Arc de Triomphe -- there actually is an elevator. They pulled us out of line with kids and took us to it. We were going to walk carrying the folded up stroller and they said, 'follow me' and took us to the elevator.

- Pay attention to lines. I personally would avoid the top level of the Eiffel Tower -- level 2 gives a much nicer view. This might be a place to book lunch at Jules Verne (is it still called that?) to take advantage of the express elevators. Do a late lunch, linger...

- Most of all, have fun!!!

Getting to the metro station may be only part of a problem. There are stairways and sometimes long underground corridors to make connections.

Playing around with the interactive map at on the Paris transport site www.ratp.fr suggests that the 89 bus runs past the hotel. It crosses the line of a number of other bus routes as well:

http://www.ratp.info/orienter/cv/cv_en/carteparis.php

There may be some walking between stops, and the 89 doesn't seem to run in the evenings, but it might be a more reassuring option.

The interactive map also has a route-measuring option that suggests the Luxembourg RER station and interchanges are about 600 yards walk in one direction and Cardinal Lemoine metro station about 800 yards (say, half a mile).

One more enthusiastic vote for using the bus over the Metro. Learned this lesson when traveling with my own mobility limited mother a few years back, and I still use the bus even when alone. One great advantage is that as you ride along you get to actually see things. If you have a transit pass then you can jump off whenever something strikes your fancy then get back on later.

This has been a great help. I've been studying the buses, and with a group of 4 taxis may be the way to go. And no hotel (that i can afford) will be perfect, as you are always balancing the noice, the subway connections, the price, etc.
thanks all.