2 Nights in Paris... trying to narrow down neighborhood

I would recommend staying on Ile St. Louis or in the 4th or 5th arrondissements, as close to the river as possible. You can't get more central than that. Ile St. Louis is in the 4th. Those areas are easily walkable and there is plenty of activity. I can't recommend any specific hotel, but you might look on Trip Advisor for suggestions.

Andrea's right -- close to the river if you can. You might also do well in the 6th.

We stayed here some years back, in the 5th. The hotel and neighborhood would fit your description of what you're looking for. We loved both.

Exactly what Andrea said. Ile St. Louis is my absolute favorite neighborhood in Paris. It's like a little village in the very heart of Paris, very charming and surrounded by the river and amazing views. You can't get more charm and quintessential Paris. It has everything you said you're looking for. Three great hotels there I can recommend: Hotel St. Louis en l'Isle, Hotel de Lutece and Hotel des Deux Iles.

If not Ile St. Louis, then the Marais (also in the 4th), the 5th or the 6th, as Andrea and Dick said.

There are no cobblestone streets in Paris. Here and there there are streets paved with square paving stones called setts. The only place I have seen cobblestones in recent travels was in Spain. They are miserable to walk on.

What you are describing sounds like the 6th to me -- and perhaps Isle St. Louis although it is smack in the middle of tourist hell during the day especially and not well served with either transportation or amenities like grocery stores. The Marais might also work although again the central and most charming parts of the Marais are now given over to high priced boutiques and wall to wall tourists.

Two nights gives you one day for Paris so being very central where you can walk along the river at night is a really good idea.

@ Janet - There is a wonderful grocery store on Ile St. Louis. And... a post office, pharmacies, bakeries (great one on rue des Deux Ponts), a produce store at the corner of rue des Deux Ponts and rue St. Louis en l'Ile that has the best fresh squeezed OJ we have ever had, they have great ice cream places (Berthillon and Amarino), butchers, cheese shops, a pate/foie gras shop, a high end chocolate shop (Cacao), creperies, wonderful restaurants, really fun stores with great stuff you won't see everywhere else, really enjoyable street entertainers and musicians on the pedestrian bridge leading to Notre Dame, a beautiful park at the eastern end of the island, a beautiful church, and my favorite cafe in all of Paris.

The tourists are only at the western end of the main street... the entire rest of the island is locals going about their daily life and is very quiet and very charming.

We have stayed on Ile St. Louis many times, for a month at a time and found transportation options as simple and easy as anywhere else in Paris. The 6th is nice, I like it, but it is packed with tourists.

@ Susan - Thank you for explaining in detail all that Ile St. Louis has to offer. In reality it is doubtful that over a 2 night visit a grocery store or other such places will be necessary. It's good to know that in case they are, those conveniences are all available.

Rue Cler, though nice enough, is far from a central location. It would be a metro ride to anywhere besides the Eiffel Tower. Nighttime activity is fairly nonexistent. And if you are there on a Sunday or Monday...Rue Cler is a dead zone.

I just stayed, in late May, at the excellent Hotel Relais Bosquet in the 7th near the Eiffel Tower and can highly recommend the hotel and the location. We had a nice room with a view of the tower from our bed. (room 44). Rue Cler was a block away and the cafes were very crowded and lively each night until around 11pm. It was nice to be so close to the Tower in a safe, clean neighborhood and the activities near there. The hop on hop off bus has a stop next to the Tower and also some Seine river cruises leave from right there. There is also a quaint, excellent Parisian restaurant, La Petit Troquet nearby that we very much enjoyed. One of the finer things you may enjoy is dinner at the Jules Verne Michelin rated restaurant on the 2nd level of the Tower with the amazing views. Excellent gourmet food and wine sampling for a pretty price. Bucket list material that we greatly enjoyed. Need reservations 3 months in advance.

Thank you, thank you! This is the advice I was hoping to get :) What you are saying all makes good sense as far as staying near the river. I sure do we had more time, but it is what it is...

Making progress! I've eliminated Arrondissements 2, 3, 4 and 8... so now looking in 1, 5, 6 and 7. Again, thank you for the input, and further opinions welcome :)