Finding hotels on the spur of the moment in France?

Some people love to travel this way, some wouldn't do it on a dare. Very much a YMMV situation. If you don't get obsessed with a certain type of room in a certain place in a certain area, there's some real freedom in winging it. You also have to be flexible moneywise.

Oh yes, this is the truth. I think it worked for us because it was winter. Not sure I would have tried this in the summer!

Id really rather not waste my previous vacation time looking for and hoping to find a room for 5 people.

IN Paris there are virtually no rooms that hold 5. Some hotels have family suites with more than one room but 4 is the max for one room. It doesn't matter if you plan to sleep the kid in your bed or whatever. If you show up with 5 people for a quad room including a kid you will almost certainly be denied the room. You will need two rooms, a triple and a double, in Paris or written confirmation of a 5 person room. I would absolutely not leave this to chance anywhere, but particularly not in Paris. There is a hotel in the Latin Quarter called Marignan that has a 5 person family room that is not terribly expensive (there is another hotel with the same name that is expensive near Champs Elysees) I haven't stayed there but have seen it recommended by others in your situation.

France has very strict occupancy rules; I would be surprised if you found 5 person rooms elsewhere either but definitely nail them down before travel -- no way you will find them just showing up in town.

It is not like the US or Canada where you can add a kid or two to a room without problem. All people have to be declared and room occupancies are enforced in France.

Thanks for all your tips. I like the freedom of staying an extra day in a town if we want to, but also get the logistical problems. I am definitely going to figure out the hotel situation before we are in Paris for sure, as that sounds more tricky.

We never stayed anywhere fancy before, but were able to fit more than four people in a hotel before and no one seemed to care. Although, it was not Paris.

I read a report of someone who booked a double and showed up with a one year old baby and were turned away as the hotel had no triples.

What I would do if you want flexibility is have a list of hotels that meet your needs in the places along the way and then call ahead the day before. They may enforce numbers less rigorously in the sticks but don't risk it in Paris. And worse case scenerio if you are off season and there are rooms, you just get two when you get there.

Another wrinkle in off season travel (I am not sure when you are traveling) Years ago in early May we decided to just pick up rooms as we went in Burgundy. Our first night we went to half a dozen hotels near Oradour sur Glan that I had researched as nice places and none of them was open for the season. I began to worry that we were going to sleep in the car when we finally found a place. It was kind of awful -- the bed was poured into the floor -- a sort of concrete pedestal -- with a foam mattress plunked on top -- but it sufficed. Same with restaurants -- many were not yet open. Oddly the restaurant attached to the terrible motel, was both inexpensive and excellent.

A handy thing to have is of course a phone or tablet or laptop and access to wifi (preferably in the hotel you are at). I'm generally one who has to have everything planned before hand, but we did California a few years ago and for a few of those nights, I wasn't sure months before where we thought we would be that day. So the night before, we'd be in our hotel, I'd look at the map and go...we will stop here and I'd pop onto Expedia (or choose your poison - venere, hotwire, booking.com) and book a room for the next night. I still like to have everything planned ahead, but sometimes it is nice to not have everything planned to the hilt and to be a little flexible. Wifi has made it so much easier to find something whereas long long ago (like, 2000) you'd have to go hunting around to find something...

I believe you will find it difficult to find rooms for five .. no matter where you go.. but especially in Paris (where families do much research to find some of the very very few rooms for five)

Also.. even thought a child may be an infant.. you must include them in your head count for a room. There may or may not be any charge for them.. but you must count them because in Paris as at least their are strict fire code laws re heads pers square footage of room.

Finding two rooms would be much easier..

Just realized you are visiting right over Christmas .. that could certainly make things harder.

Thanks for the advice -- I will definitely book something for Paris. Most likely the other cities as well, I'm just still nailing down how long we are staying in each place so its a bit tricky.

Christmas is high season in Paris both for costs and crowds. I'd get that one nailed down absolutely. If you will be there for 4 or 5 days then AirBNB or other rental e.g. Vacation in Paris might make it easier to find space. It is not unusual to have one bedroom apartments with fold out couches in the living room which will also provide a crib for a small child.

Christmas is a hard time to find apartments and they are at their most expensive and some require renting for the entire 10 day 'Christmas period'; it is true that the lines are slightly less than in July but at places like Versailles there are still very long lines. This Christmas will probably be an exception as the faint hearted are pulling out of European travel. The 4 star hotels in particular are being hit hard.