travelbunny,

While I understand your point about the "reliability" of chain hotels, it should be noted that Best Western hotels in France are generally not of the cookie-cutter type they are in the US, but rather are individual hotels using the Best Western umbrella for reservations, etc. They can be very idiosyncratic, but are probably required to meet certain cleanliness and service standards (although this is an assumption on my part...I don't know that it's the case.)

I think the Hotel Bonaparte, suggested by Ira, meets all your requirements. The hotel is in a great location for shops, restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and is just off the corner of St. Sulpice, which is definitely worth a look. I love the area. My daughter lives around the corner. This is a very upscale and safe area. In case you are interested, here is the info on Hotel Bonaparte:
Address:
61 Rue Bonaparte
75006 Paris
France
Phone:
011-33-143269737

They have several different size rooms, and also an elevator and air conditioning. Many small hotels there do not have either [not that you'll need air in Nov!]

Whatever you decide, enjoy the trip!

Best Western is just a hotel marketing consortium. I'm sure they must have some standards regarding which hotels they allow to join, but they vary from 2 to 4* and I don't think they have any more reliability than any other hotel in their categories because they are independently owned and managed hotels. Their pricing is not cheap, either, it's the same as other hotels in their category. Because it's a wellknown brand name for Americans, you might find more of them that have nonsmoking floors, however.

Actually, the Libertel French hotel chain has quite a few hotels in Paris that have a lot of nonsmoking rooms and floors. They are the same idea -- individual hotels that belong to that group. I've stayed in one and was very impressed with its standards for the price and level it was.

I would also bet that the queen-sized room at Fleurie means a queen bed, that's the only time I've seen a hotel use that term in Europe. However, that should be apparent in the room description, so maybe Fleurie uses it differently.

Mentioning about the bed types I can't recall going to Paris and having two twin beds pushed together to make a double. For the last few times I've had an actual double bed. It's unusual, isn't it, to have a queen bed unless it's a deluxe hotel?

If you want to be really near a metro station, I can advice you to go to the Hotl Saint Paul..it's a three star hotel really close to the metro ODEON..It's in the Latin Quarter so very good for you concerning cafes and bakeries too...Really if I were you, I would consider this hotel beucause it is really interesting and match all that you need....I can give you ots website:www.h-saintpaul.com/...!!!I hope you will find it fine...have a good trip with your mom!!!

..my comments were NOT meant to specifically recommend best western..I could have substituted Ibis, sofitel ect..my point was to ask echo to take a hard look at what her mother wanted and to point out that from my experience many of the hotels mentioned in this post have their quirks..such as noisy plumbing, a hotel cat, "personalities" at the front desk ect...i find these quirks interesting and unique but my mother would prefer a much blander but more uniform commodity.

I have stayed in the 6th, the 5th and the 11th as well as the 1st. The staff at the Relais du Louvre did me a kindness. I had rented and apartment around St. Severin, which I did not like. The staff at the hotel literally "took me in" and had to make special arrangements to do so. It was a kindness I won't ever forget!