We are cashing in Marroit Reward spoints to stay at the Renaissance La Defense. Has anyone ever steyed there? From the info I can find, although we'll be outside the city we can easily get around because of proximity to the metro. But is the hotel really that close to the metro? (when brochures say "just minutes away" I worry that they are greatly underestimating). Also, I have heard that it is dangerous to walk the entire straight path from La Defense to Arc de Triomphe because there's a dangerous area beteween the two sites. Is this true as well? All suggestions/comments welcome!

They have a WEBsite which claims it's only about 200 meters from the metro stop, so if they're not lying, that's very close. I've never stayed there, that's a business area, you know, not of much interest and don't know that part of town well but I think there is an undesirable shall we say area around the Porte de Maillot area which is between La Defense and the Arc. That's pretty darn far, though, I doubt if you would walk it anyway. Maybe dangerous meant traffic wise, you'd have to cross the outer expressway surrounding Paris to do it and I don't know if there is any pedestrian way across that. I think you may be underestimating how far apart La Defense and the Arc are; you wouldn't want to walk it. (Well, unless you are really into walking/hiking all day for miles).

The La Defense area is really out of the way. Perhaps there is another Marriott in Paris that you could use your points at. I stayed at the Sofitel with my husband because he was there on business. You would have to take the Metro into Paris from there--it is like being in the suburbs.

There is a Marriott right on the Champs Elysees. This would be a much better location as La Defense is really out of the way.

Unfortunately, there isn't any room at the other marriotts---they only reserve a small number of room s for those using points, so its very hard to take one of their free trips when and where you want. We are very upset about this, as you might imagine! Thank you for all the advice.

WE were just at the Paris La Defense Renaissance 3 weeks ago. IT was great. Nice and quiet. The metro is literally up some steps and a 2-minute walk. We had no problem. I will tell you that the restaurants there were expensive in comparison to what you can get in Paris especially now. I don't know about walking to the Arc d'triomphe. I wouldn't want to waste my energy walking there. There's so much walking and wonderful places to see. We would would just plan on going to an area, say, the Ile de Cite, take the metro, then start the walking. We spend 7 days in Paris. We loved every minute of it. We found the food to be reasonable. WE would go to the Latin Quarter and just wander around the side streets and find a little cafe, usually order the Plat du Jour -- even though we cant' understand the menu -- and were always very happy. The portions seem to be so large that a lot of times my husband and I split meals or ordered a salad and a meal. It really was more than enough. Well, hope you love Paris as much as we did.