parkhill24

Take a look online and check out reviews for the Hotel l'Abbaye near the church of Saint-Sulpice and the Luxembourg Gardens. We've stayed there twice and it's superb. Surely there's no quieter, more pleasant place. I hope our wonderful breakfast waiter will not have retired; he's been there 38 years!

denisea

Another Fodorite and friend also recommends L'Abbaye highly! There is no shortage of great hotels in the 6th.

cybertraveler

One more vote for Ile St Louis. We love the cozy feel and it has many great restaurants and shops. This is a nice little hotel:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...de_France.html
We were there two years ago and will return this summer--can't wait!

Cali

OReilly, thanks so much for the info on the Boutique Hotels. We also like them very much. Thanks also for those who mentioned lle St Louis. It looked like a great location, but so far no one has an opening while we are there. Will check out those Boutique Hotels and some of those in St Germain and some other areas that sound neat and hopefully make up my mind. Our budget is $500 - $600/night and we would love it if we could find a neat hotel for less. We want to have a great trip tho so don't want to skimp and pass on a hotel we would love. Thanks for all the ideas. Love them.

justineparis

Wow , you have a great budget so lool at Hotel Aubusson, I would stay there if I had the money. lol Great location in the 6th.

rivieralover

Absolutely St Germain,I just finished my travel a week ago all over France, it was best to end the trip in Paris, we rented an apartment in Saint Germain during 5 days. It was for us one of the best neighbourhoods in Paris.

AussieFrance

I would stay in 1st arrondissement near the Louvre/Palais Royal. You can then walk to most places and will be right on the river practically. I have been living here for 8 years now and wouldn't live anywhere else as far as getting around the city goes. There is a hotel in a small street close by that I always recommend to friends: Hotel Louvre Bons Enfants.

kerouac

<< St. Germain is safe and beautiful and <b>not so touristy</b> >>

What? It is perhaps the #1 tourist ghetto in Paris. (But of course if tourists like it, it obviously looks nice.)

WeisserTee

"But I also find the 16th to be remote and hard to get to."

That's not really a fair comparison, Gretchen. The VM where your parents lived is at the far end of the 16th, an arrondissement so big it has two post codes (75016 and 75116). We had an apartment near there; it's completely different from the parts of Passy that are near museums (the Guimet, for example) and a much shorter metro/bus ride to other attractions. We stayed many times at the Sofitel LeParc on Avenue Raymond Poincare and the Hotel du Bois, mentioned above, for example, and it would have be very inaccurate to describe their locations as "remote" and "hard to get to."

StCirq

<<St. Germain is safe and beautiful and not so touristy.>>

Safe, yes. Beautiful, pretty much. Not so touristy??? Probably the biggest tourist mecca in Paris apart from bits of the 5th and bits of Montmartre. Doesn't make it unattractive, but to call it not too touristy is simply terribly wrong.

sueciv

Oh, as a recommendation for a boutique hotel in the 1st, I stayed at the Hotel Relais du Louvre, right next to the church St. Germaine des Auxois (I'll bet that spelling is wrong...) but they're great! AND they have a very lux apartment with all the services of a hotel...that's a dream for me.

Gretchen

OK. But still not what you would call "the thick of things". Pl. auteuil IS hard to get to!! But very nice once there. And one time there was a wonderful brocante in the square!!
I know everyone has their favorites--I'm fine with it. But I also look at what is near that is gonna get me elsewhere so I have some alternatives at hand.
Actually one time I was tempted to stay very near the Champs at the Hotel California on rue Berri. it was where my parents lived for a while before moving to their house, and it would have been fun for the memory/thought. But we didn't!!

Cali

Thanks for all your comments and recommendations. Several of the hotels that have been recommended are filled for all or part of our dates, but we like several of the others also so will decide which one this weekend.

easytraveler

Choose a hotel that will be close to what you would like to do or see or close to a metro station that will get you to where you would like to go pretty quickly.

I love opera, so prefer to stay close to the Bastille. The open air market is wonderful; it makes me feel like a Parisian and not some stupid tourist just passing through.

So, it's all about what you would like your Paris trip to be - museums, open air markets, most visited sites, food - as they say in Paris - "whatever floats your boat".

patmcconnell

BEST WESTERN Left Bank - St Germain
9 Rue De L'Ancienne Comedie, 75006 Paris, France
great hotel. good location.

sandypaws3

I'm not particularly fond of the Champs Elysees. We usually try to stay in the 6th, closer to Saint Sulpice, if we can get a good hotel rate. We enjoy that area in the evening, so staying in the area makes sense for us. We stayed once in the 7th, and although we loved the hotel, the area was not as enjoyable in the evening. Hotels in the 6th are also close to Jardin du Luxembourg, and good transportation options are close by. We have also stayed in the 5th when we couldn't get a good rate in the 6th, and that was fine. We do seem to end up at restaurants in the 5th, and it's an easy bus ride to the 6th.

Scootoir

Cali, your budget will allow you a lovely hotel in a lot of areas so don't limit yourself to considering these two.

After several trips to Paris and stays in the 6th & 8th (near Parc Monceau) DH and I prefer the 7th near the rue St Dominique but some friends think it's too far from some of the sites. We use the Batobus as we don't care for traveling underground in such a beautiful city. And we have visited several times and like to take our time now.

kerouac

With your budget, I would probably stay at the Westin or Le Grand Inter-Continental. (I have nothing against international chains when spending that much money.)

janisj

I didn't post originally because you were getting lots of good feedback (Neither area would be my first choice, and the CE 'area' would be awfully far down my list. SG would be maybe in my top 4 or 5)

But after seeing your budget WOW! You can stay just about anywhere. Absolutely no reason IMO to limit yourselves to those two places. Your friends who recommended the CE - ignore them right off.

Look, in the 5th, 6th, the 4th, look in parts of the 1st. Pick a great hotel - not necessarily in SG.

elizbuth

We usually like the left bank, but on our last trip stayed in an apartment in the Montorgueil area just north of St. Eustache. Even though our closest metro stop was closed for construction, we found it to be a very convenient location. It was a 10-minute walk to the Louvre and its metro stop, a few more minutes to the 6th arrondisement, and a bus took us east. A wonderful market street was the cherry on top.

You've got a luxurious budget, so you should be able to stay anywhere you like. Have a wonderful stay in Paris!