Hi everyone,
I'm currently in a town 45 min from paris, and i will be travelling to south of france from dec 22-26, and taking an early morning dec 27 flight back to canada. I have heavy/bulky luggage, and I'd like to leave one piece somewhere in paris (in a hotel). Does anyone think that it's possible to pay a hotel just to leave luggage there? I have read the posts about lockers and there is a 72 hr limit, which does not work for me. (the size of my luggage is quite large too!)

i was going to leave my luggage near a hotel at gare du nord since i will be arriving in paris in gare du nord, then switching to gare d'austerlitz to go to south of france. any suggestions for my situation?

thanks for your advice,
roundbunny

I have done that before, I usually do not tell them I am not a guest of the hotel. I just give them my luggage and usually there are no questions, then when I pick up my luggage I pay the fees or tip.

Hi rb,

Pick a reasonably large hotel.

Small ones might not have enough storage space.

It's a great idea. I never would have thought of it, but a Fodor's user suggested it to me last May. We had an eight hour layover in Boston enroute to Amsterdam. We wanted to see the city, so at the suggestion of a Fodorite, we took the subway in from Logan and checked our luggage at a large downtown hotel. They were happy to do it. Of course, we tipped well for this convenience, which made them happier!

pjparlor: you just walk in with your luggage and they are happy to keep them for you? they don't even ask any questions about whether or not you stayed at their hotel?

Is this plan risky though? What if I several hotels in a row and I am rejected...? Is lying a good strategy (pretend I am a guest, which may be difficult) or should I tell them the truth (that I am not really a guest, I just want to leave it there....)

Thanks for your tips!

This is speculation because I have never done this. But if it were me, I would choose the most upscale hotel (ie, five-star) I could find and ask the question about storage with a 10-20 euro note in my hand.

According to the Gare du Nord website they have left luggage facilities there. Seems to me that would be the easiest thing to do.

I have done this in the U.S. with long layovers but I would not walk into a Paris hotel, even a large chain one, and try it. Hotels are more prudent about luggage storage nowadays, esp. hotels around the big train stations.
However, if you really want to do this, suggest you pick a large chain hotel, particularly an American chain with an onsite restaurant, say you are meeting up with someone at the restaurant, hand off the luggage and then go in and have something to eat or drink at the restaurant.
If you were just leaving your luggage for a day, I don't think you'd have problems. But you're planning to leave your luggage behind for several days and that makes it much more difficult.
I think you might have to just suffer through dragging your stuff around for those days in the south.
Better still, can you arrange to ship anything back to Canada from the post office?

Blue Marble Travel (www.bluemarble.org) specializes in bike trips and offers luggage storage service to anyone, customer or not.

However, if you book a Paris hotel for the night before you fly home, they probably will readily agree to store your luggage for a few days in advance--and may not even charge you for doing so.

I have done this in London, I have left my luggage at the Thistle Victoria, Dolphin Square and Hilton at the paddington station. Never have had any problems, I never explained I wasn't staying there but I have said I am checked out and I would like to leave my luggage. When I usually do this it is just for the day.

Sounds like a wonderful idea, but why would hotels be any less cautious than the places which used to have lockers?

I guess you can try it, but I wouldn't expect it to work.

I personally have never stayed in a hotel where someone can just walk up to a luggage storage person and give them luggage and they take it, no questions asked. Obviously, some other folks above have, but I have not. Every hotel I've stayed at handles that through the desk clerk, manager or someone who gets it from you to give to luggage storage. I don't think anything but a real cheap hotel or questionable one would do that for a fee, as they wouldn't need the money to start renting out their lugage room to strangers for a euro or two. No major hotel would do that, they don't need that kind of small change.

I really think it odd that any hotel would do this, for security reasons aside from them needing the space and not wanting to run some luggage rental space business on the side--especially around a train station.

Does anyone have an update on what to do with luggage during a Paris layover?

We'll have carryon luggage during an 8 hour layover between CDG and Orly and would prefer not to carry/roll it around Paris for the few hours we will be there.

TTT

Has anyone tried leaving luggage for a few hours at a museum cloakroom? the Musee Orsay and Rodin Museum both accept bags up to carry-on size.

I don't know if you could leave the museum for a few hours, and the nreenter just to collect your bag (without purchasing another entrance ticket.

crusinred,

You can store your luggage at Gare du Nord, Gare de l'Est, Gare de Lyon, Gare d'Austerlitz, and Gare Montparnasse.

Wow. No one else thinks it's tacky to even ask a hotel you're not staying in to hold your luggage?

Not if one is paying for it... no more tacky than eating in the hotel restaurant though not a guest.