Active Retirees first trip to Paris for 8 nights--where to stay?

We like the Latin Quarter. I don't think we'd like staying near the Opera House. We always stay in Hotel Familia. It is the characteristic Paris building with the iron balconies, etc. It is not fancy, but it is small, clean and the staff is nice. We find that location to be close to most of what we like to do. There is a restaurant close that we like, St. Victor, about a minute walk. It is a quick walk to the Notre Dame and the hotel is close to the edge of St. Germain.

Honestly? I think time is very short to book for eight nights in May, and especially for two rooms. I'd go to Booking.com and put in your filters, whatever they are. You can filter by budget, arrondissement and many others. Identify two or three that have availability and then come back here for opinions.

Anything in the 6th would be perfect, IMO. But there are lots of other areas that would be great too, but start with the 6th and see if anything appeals.

You are wise to be cautious -- popular areas like the Latin Quarter are attached to the names of places that stretch the borders of the areas. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with staying near Opera -- it can be bustling and noisy over there but it does have excellent transit connections and a number of well priced hotels such as for example Hotel St Petersbourg, which depending on what days you are going in May could be within or close to your budget. The closer you get to June, the higher the prices are. For the Latin, a colleague recently stayed at Hotel Claude Bernard Saint Germain and really liked the hotel, especially its location which is apparently about a 5-minute walk from two metro stations and about a 10-minute walk to Notre Dame.

I'd try to find an apartment hotel for a trip that long which would give you a second room and a kitchenette. Doing breakfast in saves a huge amount of money and also gives you the pleasure of buying wonderful French breakfast breads for a small fraction of what eating out costs. You are also in position to have snacks, drinks and picnic supplies.

I like the Marais (4th) or Latin Quarter (5th) for a first visit. both are an easy walk to so many things you want to see and are charming. It is pretty late to be booking. We have already booked for September and could not get the entire time we wanted.

I agree that because you're looking kind of late, the best way for you to start is to using any booking website and filter for the days you'll be in Paris (but try to book directly with the hotel). We like the 6th Arrondisement, which is the "St. Germain" area and right next to the Latin Quarter (7th Arrondisement). The Marais (4th Arr., and parts of the 3rd, I think) is also good. All of these locations have many restaurants and bars, and are convenient to the Metro and to many sites and sights (but not all, of course, Paris is a big city).

Also, when looking at the hotels, you can always tell their arrondisement by the last two numbers of the postal code. For example, one hotel that we've stayed at numerous times is Hotel Le Regent, is at 61 Rue Dauphine, 75006 Paris, France. You can tell, then, that it's located in the 6th Arrondisement.

Thank you all--you have given me great information and helped with the details you provided. I know we are late to the game here--but life got in the way of planning this adventure and now we are playing catch up!! We will have spot booked by tonight or tomorrow!!

Lexma in particular--thank you--postal code is game changer as I've heard some hotels list themselves as one area and are actually in another!!!

I recently stayed at the Hotel Moliere in the 1st. It's an easy 5 minute walk to the Louvre and Tuileries Garden and less than that to the metro. The room was very comfortable, and they have a nice lobby with comfortable chairs where I was able to stop and rest between excursions.

We like the 6th Arrondisement, which is the "St. Germain" area and right next to the Latin Quarter (7th Arrondisement)

Just one correction to the statement above -- Latin Quarter is NOT in the 7th -- it is predominantly in the 5th arrondisement, on the Left Bank.

https://parisjetaime.com/eng/transport/quartier-latin-p1913

Thank you. We booked Les Fontaines du Luxembourg. I really appreciate all the helpful information shared in response to my request.