Where to stay in Paris
 

We are going to be in Paris for 9 nights in May. We have been looking at apartment rentals and have narrowed our choices down to 3: one through Janet Cole in the south section of the Marais district; another through Welcome @ France near Rue Cler in the 7th arrondissement; and one through parisfurnishedapartments.com in the 1st arrondissement near Rue de Bourdonnais and Rue de Rivoli. We are looking for convenience to transit, quiet sleeping and an enjoyable area of Paris to experience as a short term resident. Does anyone have comments about these areas or these rental agencies? Thanks very much for any input.

I'd put the one in the 1st last, Marais first, 7th second.
Betwen Marais and 7th. 7th is a lot quieter. Rue Cler is fine, not as 'woopdeedoo' as Rick Steve's promises, but 7th is a bit further out, 1st to me is a bit to commercial.

Rue Cler is a cute street and all but to me seems awful far away from the usual things people want to see and do in central Paris.

Where is the apartment in the Marais? We stayed near the Centre Pompidou and it was busy, not so quiet there. It's also very busy down by the Hotel de Ville.

We prefer to stay in the quieter, more residential parts of Paris, like the 7th.

But if the bedroom faces into a courtyard, then it's pretty quiet anyway.

I'd toss the one in the 1ère - wouldn't want to be near the rue de Rivoli - huge, busy street.

Marais could be good or could be hectic. Depends exactly where.

I've been a big fan of the 7ème for 30+ years, long before anyone nonlocal knew about the rue Cler. There's great bus and métro service there, and to come home at night to a residential area (though one with plenty of cafés, restaurants, stores, etc.) is my preference.

I'm not familiar with any of these agencies so can't comment on that.

The location in the first might be fine if the apartment is south of rue de Rivoli (and as St Cirq says, not at the corner.) If south it may be quite close to Pont Neuf and the metro station and would be a short walk across the bridge to the 6th.

Thanks, everyone. The apartment in Marais appears to be between Rue de Lobau and the Place d'Hotel de Ville on "a quiet side street". The one in the 1st arr. is on Rue de Bourdonnais, north of Rue de Rivoli and also speaks of the living and bedrooms looking out into (separate courtyards). The apartment in the 7th is on Ave Bosquet near Rue Bosquet.

With that information, my choice would be the Marais.

The rue de Lobau runs directly behind the Hôtel de Ville so there can't be any streets between the two places. There's only one street that runs off rue de Lobau and that's rue François Miron, which is a relatively quiet street so perhaps that's the street. Regardless, most of the streets east of the Hôtel de Ville and south of rue de Rivoli/rue saint-Antoine are fairly quiet (by large city standards).