Where did you stay in Paris
 

I am trying a new approach on getting information on hotels / apartments

If anyone is willing, would you post where you stayed in Paris

how you liked it / would you stay there again
Did it have air conditioning, we are going in the summer months
What area was it in

Trying to get a list together to go through and narrow it down to 5 to choose from

I know that most times I should post my budget, requirements etc. but I am trying to do this differently and see what people thought of where they stayed

Here is hoping that many will particpate :)
Thanks

I'd be glad to post if you let us know the price range you're interested in--otherwise there will be far too many in all price ranges, a real waste of valuable time for you.

I am not too interested in the price at this time but more in what people enjoyed and why so that we can decide if something is in our budget or worth a splurge.

OK, I'll bite...

We really like RELAIS CHRISTINE, which is a charming hotel in the 6th, converted from a monastery.

The hotel is located on a tiny lane off rue Dauphine ( great for July-August sales!) and only about two blocks in back of Blvd. St. Germaine.

Rooms can vary from very small with no balcony to compact duplexes overlooking the garden or interior courtyard.

The rooms are simply decorated, but have comfortable beds, WONDERFUL AC, and tiny bathrooms stocked with Molton Brown soaps and very plush bathrobes.

We love the very helpful staff, and the location which is within easy walking distance to the Latin Quarter ( about 10 min.) and Notre Dame. It's only a little further to the Louvre and Musee D'Orsay. And of course, the hotel is perfect for exploring the boutiques and galleries around St. Germaine.

Rates can be expensive- this is a 4-star hotel-, but in the past we've received a discounted August rate, so be sure to ask if you decide you're interested.

Two other hotels to mention are: Hotel D'Aubusson, which is on rue Dauphine, and Villa D'Estrees, which is, I think, near Notre Dame. Both of these look very nice and might be worth investigating!

Have a great time in Paris!

Last April my sister and I stayed at Hotel Jeanne D'Arc in Le Marais (3, rue de Jarente - very important as there are two hotels with the same name!!) and were very pleased with it, especially for only 80 euros a night. The location was great and the hotel itself was very cute. I would recommend getting one of the superior rooms for around 90 euros a night if your budget allows, we saw one (w/two beds, I don't remember what #) and it was much cuter and brighter than the one we had. I think the hotel had air conditioning but am not 100% sure since it was cool when we were there - ask them to confirm. The website is www.hoteljeannedarc.com.

Thank you Weadles and Audrey

Just the type of info I am looking for. The reason I didn't list price is because some of the higher priced hotels sometimes offer wonderful deals depending on the time of year you travel. Other times not. I like to contact each individual hotel to ask what their best price is for a certain date and go from there. We are still working out the dates we will travel to Paris

This will be our first time in France but not the first time in Europe

Thanks again and looking forward to many more replies

We almost always stay in the Hotel D'Angleterre on rue Jacob on the Left Bank. ( http://tinyurl.com/qanw7 )
Last March we rented an apt in the 7th and really enjoyed that too. ( www.parisperfect.com)
We never go in the summer, but the heating is always good where we stay :)

Last June I stayed at Hotel Des Grandes Ecoles, In Rue Cardinal Lemoine,in the Latin Quarter..The location is super,the hotel is very charming and is so quiet at night that you forget that you are actually in Paris.
This hotel is very popular and you can make the reservations only in certains dates..
No AC, only a large portable fan..the price is just right.

www.hotel-grandes-ecoles.com

Hi ga,

If you enter <Paris and Hotel> in the "search this forum" box you will find that your question has been answered many times over.

Prices often included.

((I))

I love the Hotel L'Abbaye but it is no longer in my budget. In Frebruary I stayed at the Caron de Beaumarchais in the Marais. Would stay there ago because of the location.

I stayed at Hotel du Pantheon http://www.hoteldupantheon.com/ and enjoyed it very much. The room was not huge, but well decorated and clean. It was ac'd but we didn't use it. The room was very quiet although it faces a busy street. The bathroom was very nicely done. The breakfast buffet was excellent! The location could not have been better.

Stayed at a relatively small, but excellent hotel across the street from Louvre. It's the Hotel Regina. If you get a corner room (not on the front) you can have a beautiful view over the Tuilleries Gardens, and the Musee D'Orsay on the opposite side of the Seine. It's a fabulous location! It is a high end hotel, so it does have air, elevators, and a lovely room for breakfast.

First, one in the 16th: the Regent Garden (now a BW affiliate), built by one of the Napoleons for his physician. Large, pretty rooms--especially those on the first floor--and a pleasant garden. The street the hotel is on has a mini-mart and a any number of good restaurants.

In St-Germain, our all-time favorite: the Madison. Small, beautifully decorated, good-sized rooms (those overlooking the Blvd St-Germain), lots of storage space, reliable a/c and soundproofing. Ideal location. Excellent buffet breakfast.

Hôtel Mansart, just off the Place Vendôme. A nicely old-fashioned place with very helpful staff, rooms (mostly of a good size) with antique furnishings, nice continental breakfast with all the seconds you can eat. Very convenient for the Louvre area; two good restaurants, L'Ardoise and Le Soufflé, on the nearby rue Mont-Thabor.

What we didn't like: the Regina. Overpriced, small rooms for the most part, stuffy staff. Good location, though.

One we loathed: St. James et Albany, on the rue de Rivoli. Ghastly decoration in our room, inadequate cleaning, unpleasant staff. I hear the rooms have been renovated, which is a good thing: they were truly hideous, in the worst of 50's style.

We've stayed at the L'Astor about 6-7 times. They sometimes run very good specials on their website:

http://www.hotel-astorsainthonore.com/uk/navigation.htm

There are a few rooms which had small balconies and views of Sacre Coeur. The suite on the top of the hotel has a 360 degree view of Paris including not only Sacre Coeur, but La Tour d'Eiffel as well. The rooms are bright, up-to-date, and stylish; and the staff is usually very helpful.

The location, for us, is perfect. A few blocks from La Place de la Madeleine.

We were in Paris at Thanksgiving and we stayed at the lovely Victoria Palace Hotel in the 7th. Our Jr. Suite was enormous and very comfortable. The hotel is on a quiet street of Rue de Rennes. We walked everywhere -- to Notre Dame, to the Musee D'Orsay, to the Louvre. We went by bus to Montmartre. The 95 bus is just a block away. Wonderful restaurants in the vicinity, too.

THANK YOU IRA!!!!

Hi

On our last trip we stayed at Timhotel Tour Eiffel in the 15th (see http://www.timhotel.com/hotels/us/eiffel.html). The hotel was OK but only some of the rooms have air-con. I will post some pictures on my webpage eventually but here is a review: http://www.epinions.com/content_227495022212

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

We rented an apartment, through nyhabitat.com for 8 nights, which was on Quai de la Tournelle, right across from Isle St. Louis in the 5th arrondisement. Renting was an absolutely spectacular experience. 8 nights cost us less than 1000 Euro's (and you can rent for as little as 3 nights), gave us a spot in the middle of the sites we wanted to see, not to mention a kitchen and laundry facilities (which allowed us to pack light). It was small and nothing glamourous, but the apartment was exactly as described on the website with no surprises whatsoever. We are planning to stay there again when we visit Paris next year. NY Habitat offers apartments in a range of prices in every arrondisement in Paris.

I rented a studio apartment on the rue Mouffetard from www.private-paris.com. It is also www.vrbo.com/31087 I believe.

Nice little ground floor courtyard apt. that is very quiet but close to the sights and sounds of the Mouffetard just outside the courtyard. When one opens the "big blue door" into the street there is a crepe stand on either side. Yummy and cheap. The neighborhood bustles and is safe day and night and is loaded with inexpensive ethnic restaurants and is mostly a pedestrian walking street.

Henri, the apt. owner,is very easy to work with when making arrangements.

No airconditiong but it has a washer/dryer combo and a bath tub.

Here's another vote for Relais Christine; I've written about it before, so you could type it into the search and find out more about it. I like it for a number of reasons, but it is not the most practical of high-end hotels in terms of layout.
Just steps away is LeRegent, which would offer you the same neighborhood at considerably less the price. Still nice--not luxurious, but comfortable. The rooms are quite small, but if you plan mostly on sleeping in your hotel and being out and about the remaining hours, it's a good choice in a wonderful location.

Another place that I would like to try--in a different part of Paris, nearer to the Arc de Triomphe--is the Hotel St. James. It's affiliated with Relais Christine, and is more like an English men's club. Had drinks there one evening and enjoyed its atmosphere.

Hotel le Clement....6,rue Clement...6th district...a room on an upper floor, facing the street...which is on a quiet,residential square. Happy Travels!

In more than 70 trips to Paris I've almost always stayed at either the Hôtel Duquesne-Eiffel (with A/C) or the Hôtel de France-Invalides (no A/C), both in the 7th. Love them both. Love the 7th.

I am going to Paris in June and have booked the Citadine Les Halles I was told its near the Louvre and reccommended by the travel agent . Anyone know of this hotel? Appreciate any reviews.

amwosu,

I have been eyeing that little apartment on VRBO as well. It looks great. Does it look as nice in person? Dis you have enought room to move around? If I stay there, it will be me and my husband. Love to hear more of your thoughts on the place.

Sandi- Plenty of room to move about- especially in comparison to the hotel room I stayed in for 3 nights prior to the apt.

Nice to have a tub and W/D but no AC and the bed is not huge although none are in Paris. It is very cute but I stayed there in 04 so I don't know the current condition of the furnishings. They were very nice at the time and Henri had two small vases of flowers in the apt when I was there. Nice touch.

I see that Henri has another studio in the same building that looks like its been updated more recently. There is also a 1 bdrm apt. in the building.

I love that area of Paris for an old fashioned feel. Narrow cobblestone street that dates back to the time of the Romans that is mostly for pedestrian traffic and a few motorbikes. Market street with many shops and inexpensive restaurants.

When my 14 yr old was tired of sightseeing he felt perfectly comfortable hopping on the metro alone and returning to the apt- usually stopping by the crepe stand just outside the courtyard.

My wife and I stayed at the Hotel Londres-Eiffel with a tour group visiting Paris. It is in the 7th arrondisement. It is on Rue Augereau, if I remember correctly. Very close to the Eiffel Tower. The rooms are somewhat small, but we were very happy there. I believe they have a website of their own. You might want to go to yahoo, google, or some other search engine to check out their rooms.

I stayed in the 10th Arrondisment at Hotel Altona and Hotel Maurberg. The Altona hotel was definately unique in it's 1 star rating. A bit shabby, but clean...I just did not care for the tiny stairwell...sort of hard to maneuver. They could use new carpets for sure. I stayed in a double my first night, and then got switched to the Hotel Maurberg (Altona hotel misplaced my sta reservation and didn't have anymore single rooms---just doubles). The hotel Maurberg was very clean, tons of hot water, a nice amount of space for a single...though I get the feeling the bed was really a double....the only thing was that my window didn't lock properly and once when returning to my room I found it open...which was a little scarey cause the window opens onto a little sort of terrace where all of the other hotel guests windows also open onto.

Aside from that, I felt that even the 1 and 2 star hotels in Paris were better than the 1 star hotels in London (mainly due to size). Also, though a bit shabby, the 1 star hotels are still better than the hotels one can find on skid row in larger US cities.

Hi fun_4_us_2:

I stayed at the Citadines Les Halles for 2 months back in 2001 (I was making a job transition so this is where my employer put me up). It is fine-they are all quite standard. If you go to their website you can see a representative photo. I assume you may know they are set up with little kitchenettes, and if you have a studio size room-you will have a pull out sleeper bed (it is a high quality one-so not too bad as far as comfort). Les Halles is really convenient,because it sits above the RER and metro station. The people at the hotel are nice and professional and they also have a coin operated laundry facility.

All that said, I must admit that it is not my favorite place to stay-it is very "vanilla", so none of the charm of the more rustic Paris hotels of the kind that are listed here. Also, Les Halles is kind of seedy at night-it has a lot of MacDonalds and KFC type restaurants, so is kind of a hangout for kids at night-and the homeless. I had to step over a homeless person sleeping in the doorway of the Citadine every night I came home late (say 10PM) while I was living there.

If what you want is the studio/kichen arrangement there are nicer Citadines in the 6th and also one nearer the Louvre.


http://citadines.com/serviced_apartm...otel_paris.htm

Anyway that is my 2 cents.

jpie

Thanks to jpie for the reply to my question . I have already made the reservation but now I am a bit worried I am travelling with a 14 year old grandson . We are looking forward to seeing the usual tourist attractions and I hope no problems.

Jpie doesn't paint a pretty picture of Les Halles, which I'm not disputing but it's not the whole picture. When I went to Paris for the first time a year ago September, I was on a very tight budget and wanted charm. I stayed in St. Germaine, The Marais and Montmartre, but my favorite hotel was Hotel Tiquetonne at 6 rue Tiquetonne in Les Halles, ph. 01-42-36-94-58. It's on a very charming, quiet, cobbled street that as I remember doesn't allow cars. My room was in the front, sweet as can be and cost me 28 Euros or something. The building is lovely, with high ceilings and a sweeping staircase. The staff, nice and competent, brought me breakfast in bed. This place gets consistently great reviews. The only drawback is that there is a curfew of midnight I think, so it won't work if you are planning to seriously party.

Hotel College du France in the Latin Quarter. We stayed there on two different trips and liked it very much. Good value for money, good location, air conditioning...would stay there again if we went back to Paris.

Crazy4Travel: I booked a room for Sept at the Hotel College du France. Good to know you have had good experience with them. Any words from the wise?

imlweb...I really enjoy the Latin Quarter. I would avoid the touristy strip of Greek restaurants in the neighborhood. It is fun to break plates but the food is mostly mediocre. We found a gem of a restaurant Les Fetes Galantes on a small street about 2 blocks up hill from the Maubert/Mutualite Metro station. You will need to make a reservation in advance...the Hotel front desk can likely help you place it.

Hi fun_4_us_2:

I am sorry if I worried you. I certainly didn't mean to. As JennyG mentioned there are really charming areas around Les Halles-rue Tiqutonne is not right in Les Halles exactly, but across from the shopping area and cuts across the lovely market street of Montorgueil which runs right up to the Les Halles area as well. And the shopping center in Les Halles itself has lots of great things for a 14 year old to enjoy-great shops and there is a very large movie complex that shows lots of the latest US films in English. There is even a city swimming pool you can use for a few euros. And as I said, the location is really convenient-so it will be easy to get to everywhere in Paris. The hotel itself is really nice-clean, etc. If you are really concerned you can look at other Citadines-but I am sure you will be fine there-all big cities have areas similar or much worse to Les Halles and since you want to be somewhere that has good access to metro and the tourist sites, this area definitely does.

In 2000 We stayed at 4 of the Holiday Inns around Paris.

Why?...because my neice was with us and she works for Holiday Inn and we got our rooms for 24 euro per night. We had 3 girls to the room so that was only 8 euros each....that is why....But I would never, ever do that again...not even if it was free.. The trek into the city center took up valuable time and the metro we had to take to get to the last bus that would take us to our hotel ment that we had to leave the city way too early for me.

I went again in 2001 with hubby and we stayed near the center somewhere, the name escapes me just now but it was very nice and had a great breakfast included. I had to boil my own eggs in this thing that looked like a converted toaster...weird...

I am going back again in September but will only be in Paris for one night but we are staying near the Louvre at
the Hotel Relais du Louvre

http://www.parisby.com/relaisdulouvre/index.html

I will let the board know how it worked out.

Mine is probably well below your budget, but I stayed in the Woodstock Hostel. Decent enough, not that expensive (for Paris), semi-clean, no A/C & it was somewhat warm in the rooms even in April, near Montmartre.

Thanks everyone - great information and exactly what I was looking for

My wife and I have been there 4 times and have stayed evenly in two hotels both of which we like very much.
1. Hotel Pas des Calais- steps from blvd Sainte Germaine- A/C very nice. Nice Parisian rooms. Very helpful desk. Nice breakfast.
2. Le Sainte Beauve- botique hotel- steps from Metro. Very helpful desk. Nice breakfast.

I prefer the Latin Quarter and St. Germain areas. On my last two trips I stayed at the Hotel St. Jacques and the College du France in the Latin Quarter. Loved both of them!!!! I go back in October and I rented a 2 bdrm apartment for the month on Rue Mazarine through Parisstay.com. I love that area as well!

Hi jpie Thanks for the reassurance . I was told it is a good location and you agree on this so I will just go with it.