djkbooks

www.ratp.fr is a fantastic resource for using the buses in Paris. Bus 95, for example, does run every day, last run at 12:30 AM. We much prefer the buses to the metro. Having stayed in the 14th and 17th, getting "home" by bus does take a bit longer, but we very much enjoy the ride home through the neighborhoods.

You can use Google Maps, street view, to walk around the areas of your dining destinations. You won't be in the heart of the 15th...You can always walk to dinner and have the restaurant phone you a taxi if you don't care to walk for whatever reason.

"More money, less space, 4 flights of stairs" is not something I would even consider. When choosing an apartment, I prefer NOT to be in "tourist central" where not only is it mobbed with tourists, you pay tourist prices for everything, repeat, everything.

You may want to consider the Navigo Decouverte pass. It's a great bargain and really convenient, especially being able to just ride when you feel like it rather than worry about those tiny tickets.

Christina

The RATP website has complete maps of all buslines with every stop marked. It shows the streets pretty well. Just go to the section with maps and type "95" or whatever into the box to get the routemap of a specific bus. It also has route times on it (meaning the hours it runs and days of the week). This is the general URL for bus maps http://www.ratp.fr/fr/ratp/r_23865/plans-bus/

The 15th is pretty safe as it's kind of a boring residential area, but in a good way. There are some public housing projects down that way, I think, but it's not known as a dangerous area. If you feel safe walking around othe rparts of Paris at midnight, I wouldn't worry about it. However, I'm not in the habit of walking in underground railway passes at midnight, either.

If you plan to use taxis at night, you won't be able to flag one, but probably a restaurant can call one for you.

Christina

sorry, I meant there are quite a few public housing apts around George Brassens park, I believe, which are not very scenic, for poor people and unemployed. That is their main crime, as far as I know (the buildings are ugly), after all, kids go to that parc and there is a kingergarten along it.

avalon

I have never had a problem flagging a taxi in Paris in over 30 trips!

Christina

well, you can in lots of areas of Paris that are not near the Seine. Taxis aren't even at the taxi stops in a lot of these areas. Besides, you aren't really supposed to flag taxis in Paris, anyway, even if they were roaming around looking for fares in the bottom of the 15th. I couldn't even get one down there at taxi stands.

I realize my error in the bus schedule, so that's a good thing. The hours I saw were on the cover of the map and referred to the information phone number, not the hours the bus ran. my mistake, that's for sure, so that's very good news.

plafield

That's great to hear that the 95 bus runs 'til 12:30 every night. It does make a difference. And yes, DJKbooks, we have the Navigo and always get our money's worth, even though we do a lot of walking. It's great to be able to just hop on and off the metro (and buses!) whenever we're tired or in a rush.

While I am still browsing a bit, I'm starting to settle into our original decision, which really was about not only about saving money (although that helped us choose this one a lot!)also but about deciding to try staying further away from tourist central.

Making a decision so far in advance, which I've found you really do need to do to get a good value apartment in Paris, leaves lots of time for second guessing ones self! Thanks everyone for helping me think it through.