h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Recommendations, please, for inexpensive hotel or apartment accommodation in Paris for a long weekend for my wife and daughter. (Daughter's birthday treat).

We'd like it to be...well...somewhere quaint and picturesque and all that. Convenient for the Metro (my daughter can't walk far because of a knee problem). Not too far away from the interesting bits. One stop on her itinerary will almost certainly be the Louvre.

I don't know Paris at all myself. I was aiming for the 4e, but that's looking a bit pricey.

Suggestions?

I was there 2 weeks ago. Went on the Eurostar*, which was fabulous; stayed in Montparnasse, as part of the Eurostar deal. We stayed in a place called Lenox Montparnasse, which was adequate, but hardly spacious. It's a relatively good-value area, and has easy access to the Metro, in fact there were three stations within 100m of our hotel. As far as attractions go, expect massive queues!

Of course, keep valuables in a safe place, pickpockets will seek you out. Expect to be approached by beggars. Café prices in the city centre are pricey; €6 for a coffee.

I didn't do the Louvre this time, it would take about a year to do it justice.

It's a great place, and do yourself a favour by watching Midnight in Paris before you go, to get a flavour of it.


*I'm guessing it's harder for you to get to London than it was for me, here in Sussex.

Sleeper and Eurostar? I found that very effective when visiting Lille from Edinburgh.

Check online - Les Halles which is close to the Louvre and very Parisian in a seedy sort of way used to be cheap.
Don't miss the excellent museum in the Louvre which has some amazing Egyptian and Mesopotamian objects

@quotes:

The desire for the trip was largely stimulated by 'Midnight In Paris', I suspect. My daughter was already a Fitzgerald fan. She was jealous when I visited is other hangout, Antibes, last year.

(saw it myself the other week. Rather enjoyed it.)

@Z

Air O'Leary is fantastically inexpensive just now.

@tuc:

will check out Les Halles.

I stayed in an apartment. It was cheaper than any hotel I could find and we saved money by not having to eat out and having some space to be in. It was the Abbé Patureau on the Rue Lamark in Monmatre. The apartment was from Mm Garces ([email protected]). She gave us a much better price direct than via the agency.

Ah, an apartment in Montmartre. I've come over all dreamy. If only...

I just don't have the inclination to leave my family behind. Which is just as well, cos then I'd have to fall back on the excuse that I just don't have the nerve.

But I wish I did.

Deb

Not sure where is cheap. Montmartre is certainly pretty, but it's quite hilly so it might be a bit difficult with a problematic knee. Another area which would be cheap and quite interesting (although not typically Parisian) is Belleville, although it's also hilly and transport is not so great - so scratch that. My area (the 13th) is also quite cheap, and at least around La Butte aux Cailles quite pretty, but it's quite far from the centre of town (although Place d'Italie is a good starting station). The Louvre is on lines 1 and 7. Line 1 will also take you to the Marais (4th) and Champs Elysee, but not the Eiffel tower (only one change though, pretty much true for everything). Somewhere in the 12th might also be quite inexpensive, as it's very much not a touristy area (and not particularly pretty but not too bad either), and Nation is on line 1.

Apartments in Paris can be much better value than hotels - size, price and the ability to orgnaise your own food. Parisian hotels rarely include breakfast and it can get quite pricey over a few days.

If you can do it, do not buy your Louvre tickets at the Louvre itself. The queues to buy tickets can be hours long. The queues for people with tickets can be a few minutes.

Everywhere in central Paris is less than about 250 metres from a metro station and in the inner areas much less.

Make sure you have plenty of time to wander the island banks and the bridges in the late evenings. That is where Paris really works its magic. No matter what time your daughter's bedtime is, or how tender her knee, allow space for this.

Also Ed, check your email for another possibility.

Sorted, mes braves. Inexpensive family-run in Le Marais, spitting distance from la Gare du Nord so handy for CDG. My daughter should be pleased because going by Streetview it looks like it's straight out of 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog'. It's a birthday surprise so she doesn't know any of this yet.

Her other big obsession is 'La Rafle du Vel d'Hiv', a wartime incident little known to most British in which the French rounded up the local Jews for deportation. The French, that is. Not the Germans.

Hmm. I feel a Guide Entry coming on...

This is advice I was given when I was staying in a campsite in the Bois du Bouloigne a few years ago and which I saw Hoo repeat recently: approach the Eifel Tower from Trocadero. It really does make a difference.

Don't miss the Musee D'Orsay (Musee de Gare) where the great impressionist works are kept - I walked past it as I thought it was a railway station

It was once a railway station! Massive queues outside that one, we got there as it opened to beat them.

Ah yes. Napoleon made the opposite mistake. He entered the museum expecting to catch a train. He was heard to exclaim:

'Ce n'est pas la gare!'

Have fun, I was there over the Easter weekend (got a special deal at a Courtyard Mariott which had just opened in the Boulogne-Billancourt area - but I guess that's irrelevant now).
The Les Halles area is being rebuilt at the moment. It still manages to look better than the Pompidou Centre just next door though

I know you can't walk far- but the Champs Elysee from Arc-de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde is very impressive.

Muse D'Orsay was wonderful

I walked from the Louvre to Place de la Concorde. That's an excellent walk.

TRiG.