Me? Born and raised in Mississippi?

'Born and raised in Mississippi".

That's a whole other issue. lol

letsgeaux, please post back if you here from Paris Best Lodge. We enjoyed the apartment we rented from them very much and hope to return some day.

Kerouac, I have no problem appreciating all of the arrondisements of Paris. I'm sure you meant no disrespect by making such a sweeping generalization about someone you've never met. So for now, I'll assume you've temporarily misplaced your southern manners.

My preference to find accommodations in the 7th relate to a specific, personal and touching request by my daughter, the details of which I'll keep private. I've stayed in other parts of the city in years past, and I can assure you I am not a fool when it comes to spending, nor do I lack appreciation of other areas of the city.

Thank you to all the other Fodorites who have given such great advice. I really appreciate your help.

A lovely comment.

brubenow,

The problem is that those wonderful old buildings in the center of town just have small rooms. It goes against fire regulations to put 4 people in one of those small rooms, so hotels simply cannot (not that they don't want to) accommodate 4 in one small room. They would have to massively restructure the hotel building to make the rooms larger or to combine two small rooms into one large one.

So, if you want to put 4 people into one room, you'll be stuck with a more modern hotel building or a hotel outside of the very center.

When we travelled in Europe when I was small, my parents always got two adjoining rooms, one for me and my sister, and one for them. Sometimes we stayed in posh 4-star hotels, but most often we were in smaller pensions, which weren't so expensive. That's simply the reality of travelling in old Europe with a family.

Hope you find something you're comfortable with!

s

Have you tried looking in the 15th, which is just next door to the 7th arrondissement? There are many hotels and apart'hotels within close proximity to the Eiffel Tower. Some do have vues of the Eiffel Tower, which will be specified in the advert.

Ok thank you Manouche!

By the way, the 15th arrondissement has everything the neighboring 7th arr. does. There are street markets, shopping districts, cafes and restaurants - and a little more space to wander around in. More residential, Haussmann-style buildings, pocket parks, good transport. There's really not much difference at all between the two, except that prices can be lower.

We've stayed in an apt in the 15th on R de l'Amiral Roussin (near the Mairie) for 5 weeks over 3 trips, and as stated above - in the 7th on the corner of R St Dominique & Ave de La Bourdonnais for 6 weeks. We really enjoyed staying in the 15th, but we prefer the location in the 7th. More/better restaurants in the 7th where we stayed, better bus transportation, and more interesting architecture (29 Ave Rapp & other Art Nouveau/Belle Epoque structures). We had a fabulous view of the Eiffel Tower out of 6 windows in our 7th apt, and we could see it from the place in the 15th but we had to lean out the window & look to the left. Of course, the place in the 7th was a LOT more expensive. We also stayed in the Marais for a week, but prefer both the 15th & 7th.

Bus transportation from our 7th apt:

Bus Routes
28N 42N 63N 69N 72N 80N 82 87N 92N RER-C Batabus

Bon Marche 87N
Ile St Louis 87N, 63 N
Jacquemart Andre 28, 80N
Louvre 69, 72N
Luxembourg 82
St Germain de Pres 63N, 69, 87N
Pl Madeleine 42N
Opera 42N
Arch de Triomphe 92N
Marais 69, 87N
Montmartre 80, or 80 to 30, 54
Castel Beranger area RER C
Belleville 63 (Odeon or St Michel) 28, 82 (Montparnasse), 69 (St Paul) to 96 OR 69 to 26
Train Bleu restaurant 87N, 63N,

Stu Dudley

Letsgeaux: I'm staying in a PBL apt now - arrived 2 days ago. I emailed Thierry a week prior to leaving to confirm and received a response from him right away.
Arrived at apt as planned and all is well.

Brubenow: hope you find the accommodations you want and where you want.

Thanks, powhatangal.

I did check out a few possibilities in the 15th. It's a great area. But I ended up booking Chateau Latour in the 7th. I got documentation from Paris Perfect that the apartment is complying with the law, and also a written guarantee that they if they have to cancel for any reason, that they will either place me in an equal or better apartment, or give me a full refund, whichever I prefer. I'm booking a hotel that I can cancel without penalty as well, as a backup.

Many thanks for all the helpful advice from you Fodorites!

My trip is not until July of 2016, but I'm already so excited. My girls are ecstatic and already making a list of things they want to see. It will be my husband's first time there.

Now for the plane tickets :)

So glad it worked out! Have fun planning your trip.

<i> I got documentation from Paris Perfect that the apartment is complying with the law,</i>

This is the first report by anyone that at an agency purports to have written evidence of legal compliance of a vacation rental. What exactly have they given you? I would be looking for a document, in French, from the Mairie of the 7th arrondissement. These are the people who would approve an vacation apartment rental in the 7th.

I assume that PP is collecting the <i>taxe de séjour</i> per person, per night stayed in this apartment. Oddly, they make no mention of it on their website.

If Paris Perfect is making every effort to comply with the laws that they collect occupancy taxes and only advertise vacation apartments approved by the city of Paris, I congratulate them.

If, on the other hand, they are telling you what you want to hear only to collect money on another apartment rental, certainly their honesty would be in question and the assurances they offer of no value.

powhatangal - Glad to hear that. What e-mail address did you use for Paris Best Lodge? Have a great time and give us a report.

would agree with post above being skeptical about that "documentation"...sorry but just like any agency PP has some rentals that are not legal and as stated above they are going to give the potential renter all the assurance (written by them not officials) that is required to close the deal. The renter has been warned.

We have rented 60 gites through Gites de France. A taxe de sejour is collected for these rentals also. About 60% of the time this tax is included in the rental price, and the other 40% is paid for by us at the time of departure - subtracted from our security deposit refund.

Stu Dudley

Paris Perfect likely has documentation to prove that <b> they</b> -- the agency -- are complying with the law. This does not at all mean that the apartment owner is necessarily complying with the law.

agree with Kerouac...they are being asked many more questions now than in the past and are prepared for sure. No doubt the renters will be fine but I will say booking a year in advance is risky given the current situation. I remember working with pp on a rental and then poof it disappeared from the website and when asked about it my agent (based here in US) gave me a "private" link and they could still book it...my conclusion at that time was there was a reason why they did not want to publicly have a connection with the apartment...left to the imagination...maybe issues in that building? Anyway it is all buyer beware.

Before jumping to any conclusions, would it be possible to take a cellphone snap of the documentation provided by Paris Perfect and upload it to someplace we could all see it? You can cover over any personal details if they exist on the document.

http://www.parisperfect.com/apartmen...eau-latour.php

€496 - €764 per night?

Anyone else having difficulty seeing the Paris Perfect link above?

Hi Sarastro; It does open!

It doesn´t for me. I cannot navigate within their website to any of their rentals other than those tagged as <i>long term</i>.

Probably because I live in Paris and unscrupulous agencies mask their illegal activities from those connecting to their web pages from within France. This protects them somewhat from the scrutiny of the mayor´s task force which is clamping down on illegal rental activity.

Can anyone connecting to the internet from within France, actually view the web page posted by scrb11 (without using a VPN connection)?

It opens with no problem for me, Sarastro.

Under conditions, it does say they collect taxes [without elaborating].

Sarasoto - I would not call anyone "unscrupulous agencies (who) mask their illegal activities from those connecting to their web pages from within France" before you get some facts. As you can see - you seem to have some "other" problems connecting/navigating in the Paris Perfect site.

Stu Dudley

Hey stu; Did you see this Airbnb site?

http://becker.edu/sportslight/Richar...-fame-inductee

Consider--facts do not matter!!

Wow - that's remarkable what you have done. Are the 1,745 iris's still around???

Stu Dudley

Letsgeaux: I use [email protected] and haven't had any problems communicating with Thierry. I hope you get a response from him. It is odd you are having difficulties with this.

Will try my hand at a trip report when I get home!

<i>it does say they collect taxes [without elaborating]</i>

The tourist tax (<i>taxe de sejour</i>) is about 1% of the problem. The problem being addressed by Paris and other cities, is 1. unpaid <b>income tax</i> (why do you think so many owners demand cash payment?) 2. the housing shortage 3. the assassination of residential neighbourhoods by excessive tourists, who do not go to the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. So these commerces disappear along with the cobblers, seamstresses, hardware stores, etc.

kerouac - do you see the apartment chateau-latour? I can connect to the site Paris Perfect, I can see the long term apartments, but I cannot navigate to the short term apartments?

Collecting and forwarding the taxe de séjour is really the only legal item that an agency concerns itself with. I have never seen these items included within the price of a hotel room, they are always added to a hotel stay and shown separately when checking out.

Unfortunately gentrification happens everywhere.

It's not rocket science.

stu; My Japanese Iris garden is long gone, 2003.

And I only had about 180 different verities.

Sarastro: I can connect to the PP site as well, but can't see any short term apts (in Paris now), just a couple of long term. When I'm in the U.S., I see lots of short term ones on the PP site. And, I do look at their site fairly often when home.

Thanks powhatangal.

I stand by my original comments about Paris Perfect´s integrity. However, I have heard that this is a tactic used by other agencies as well to hide their illegal rental activities from law enforcement here in Paris.

Perhaps the integrity of the naysayers needs too be questioned.

They are the same people time after time on these threads scaring people without ever telling the whole store.

Taxes ?
I went to a B&B in may on street St Denis.
I asked for an invoice.
I got the invoice 2015/2.
The guy rents 2 rooms in this appt, all year round, and issues 2 invoices in 5 months.
Sure everything is declared and he pays all his taxes.
Obviously.

Ps : Iris you are repeating yourself.
Telling people there is no risk is misleading. There is a risk.
A small one. But a risk.

http://immobilier.lefigaro.fr/articl...-6d43728bd2a8/

Title of the article :
Dans ce secteur touristique, de nombreux logements sont loués illégalement via des sites tels que Airbnb.

I don't doubt since so many are so well aware of the situation in Paris that they can read French, but for those who can't, it says that 'a lot of appt in 'le marais' are illegally rented through sites such as Airbnb'.

Now it comes from Le Figaro, as you all now, it is one of the most prominent newspapers in France, so probably the same people who scare people without telling the whole story.

They also say that Paris authorities controlled 400-500 apts in 2014 and that 56 were illegal. I'm not good in maths but love stats, and for me it means between 11% and 14% of the checked apts. And controls are increasing in 2015. Maybe my 'samll risk' is understated after all.

But they are only journalists, jsut want to sell papers, so they don't check anything and do it only to pester US citizens renting appts in Paris. And they know nothing about the laws, since on top of being journalists they are French...

Just listen to Iris - she knows and us telling there is a risk are scaremongers.

'controlled' is a bad translation of 'contrôlés' (we call it 'faux amis' in French - sounds close but not same meaning - one should use the word 'checked' instead.