I like this place: https://www.helussi.fr/.

that place does look nice, thanks!

"Between" the gare de l'Est and the Opera Garnier covers a pretty large portion of central Paris.

Near gare de l'Est I recommend the Hotel Soft in rue des Vinaigriers, which is where I personally like to stay when I visit Paris.

Rick's guides are selective not comprehensive thus the emphasis on Rue Cler -- not because it is uniquely wonderful or unusual among the dozen or so major market streets in Paris, but because it is a useful example if one wants a particular kind of experience. It is a different approach to travel guides and very helpful for first time travelers. Go to a more comprehensive guide for more hotel ideas or google map the Garnier (which is nowhere near Gare l'Est) and identify nearby hotels and then look up reviews on Trip Advisor for those hotels.

I wouldn't say Gare de l'Est is nowhere near Opera Garnier. They are between 2 and 3 kilometers from each other. Yes, there is a decent amount of space between the two points but it is not a huge area that the OP has designated.
@ fourfinleys, I forgot about two hotels that might work for you: Hotel Palm Astotel and Hotel Acadia Astotel. I have not stayed at either one but I have been inside both and stayed at other Astotel properties and both look like good options. Generally, every Astotel hotel, I have stayed in or been to has been a good value. https://en.astotel.com/hotel/acadia-opera-en/overview https://en.astotel.com/hotel/palm-opera-en/overview

I like the tiny Louvre St. Anne. I haven’t been in these two in 25 years (repeat: 25 years), but a three star might be Ascot-Opera, or Hôtel Ile de France Opéra, 26 Rue Saint-Augustin. They used to be affiliated(?) Ask for a quiet rear or courtyard room. (Louvre St. Anne has excellent A/C and double windows.)

I have stayed at Hotel Opera Cadet in the 9th twice and really like it. It is on Rue Cadet, right off Rue Lafayette, steps from the Cadet Metro station (line 7). Rue Cadet is a short market street and it is a few blocks from the Covered Passages at Grands Boulevards.

@JHK both of those hotels look nice, I'll put them on them on my list to contact. Unfortunetly, I can't book all the way to next may yet.

As for the distance between the opera house and the train station, I know they obviously aren't right next to each other, but I'm from Texas, so a couple of Km is nothing, even for walking. In fact, in that neighborhood, I might consider walking the Louvre, the opera, and the train station. (maybe not, we'll have to see how tired we are)

Still surprised that Rick didn't cover that area at all. It's a huge section of the city with hundreds of hotels.

I just stayed at the Le Relais Madeleine in the Madeleine district for the second or third time earlier this month. It is convenient to the Opera Garnier, and to Gare Saint-Lazare. I have previously stayed at the Hôtel Vivienne on Rue Vivienne, and had a nice little top floor balcony for not too much money.

fourfinleys, without disparaging Mr. Steves' guidebooks at all, we've never used them (or any other guidebook, for that matter) to choose an accommodation. In a large city there are literally hundreds of good hotels and apartments than can be listed in the books.

Booking.com has worked very well as far as zeroing into on price, location, amenities and current reviewer ratings. It has been very easy to make our reservations abroad through the site as well, and is mentioned often in the forums so works well for quite a number of other travelers too.

Just a suggestion when a guidebook is falling short? :O)

I was hoping to find one in the book because frequently he has discount codes which save money

Have you used Rick's recommended hotels before? For me, unlike his restaurant recommendations which have never failed me, the hotel recommendations are very much a mixed, leaning toward awful, bag.

fourfinleys, I just ran across this potential itinerary of yours buried in the "So how far in advance are you planning?" thread:

I am planning out a nice draft for a trip that will go new york/Paris
/Normandy/Strasbourg /Salzburg /Venice/napels /Rome /New York. 16 days
in the 2nd half of May of 2020. I have been working out the details
now because I'm going to be buying the airline tickets in the next
month, and I want to make sure I've allowed enough days.

Not to be off topic here but 7 different locations in 16 days? Very kindly, as we do care about all of our fellow travelers here, I'd say that to see more than the inside of transport devices (trains, planes, cars, buses, etc) and stations that you'll want to either eliminate a few of them or add more days. You have only budgeted 2 days for each location (if your 16 days includes travel time to and from Europe) and you lose 1/2 day or more with each location/hotel change. Very honestly, I don't know how you'd do this without becoming completely exhausted halfway into it so I am concerned for you!

It's also more accurate to count your time by nights versus days on the ground in Europe. How many NIGHTS will you be sleeping somewhere on the continent? 2 nights in one place = 1 full day of sightseeing.

A couple of those are just day trips. We're spending 2 nights in paris, 2 nights in Strasbourg, 3 nights in Salzburg, One night in Venice (evening and morning), and 5 nights in rome. There will be a one night layover in New york to allow us to See Ellis Island, which is the only thing in New york that interests us

Not trying to see everything in one city, in fact the only reason we are going to Paris at all is for the Day trip to Normandy beach. Tentatively we would like to see the opera house in the morning of the 3rd day before we head to Strasbourg. Anything else we get to see is just a bonus. We're well aware that the jet lag may put us out of commission for a while. As you can see, I've allowed time for travel, and those are our "light" days.

Day 1 Depart DFW for JFK in the morning, Board flight At JFK for 5:53PM fight

Day 2 Arrive Paris at 7:20AM, Drop Luggage off at hotel. Walk by the Eiffel tower, arch, and Notre Dame. Visit Louvre at night (closes at 9:45 PM) Spend 2 nights in Paris hotel near opera House

Day 3 Train to Bayeux, Visit Museum and Take tour. Train back to Hotel.

Day 4 Check out of Hotel, store luggage at train station, Garnier opera house tour, take train to Strasbourg. Spend the First of two nights in Strasbourg

Day 5 Explore Strasbourg (La petite France, Notre Dame, Barrage Vauban, parc de l'orangerie)

Day 6 Leave for Karlsruhe, and then take train to Salzburg, (5 hours) spend 2 nights in Wyndham H+ hotel near Train station.

Day 7 Mirabell Gardens, Mozart Birthplace, Hohensalzburg?, Herbert-von-Karajan-Platz, Domplatz?, Felsenreitschule? return to hotel, rent car, park at hotel

Day 8 Mondsee, Hallstatt & either Schafberg or Roßfeld, spend night at Schloss Leopoldskron

Day 9 Explore hotel, Return car, then take train to Venice, spend night in or near Venice.

Day 10 Explore Venice until after lunch, then proceed to Rome (3.5 hours) Spend 5 nights in Rome

Day 11 Day trip to Naples/Pompeii, return to Rome

Day 12 Rome- Vatican, and the Trevi fountain (at night)

Day 13 Rome- Colosseum, Capitoline Museum, and Pantheon

Day 14 Rome- St John’s and St. Paul's Basilica

Day 15 Rome/ flight to JFK @ 12:50PM, arrive at 4:37PM, Take the A train into Manhattan, Check into Fairfield Inn, Marriot, or Courtyard

Day 16 Leave luggage at hotel, visit Ellis island @8AM tour, pick up luggage, catch flight to DFW @ 6:40PM

In my humble opinion, your first two nights and one full day are a nightmare. You arrive jet-lagged, expect to see four major sights all day (9:45pm Louvre closing? After an all-night flight and an all-day visiting sights?), and then the next day you do a "day-trip" to Normandy, which most people, and any experienced traveler doesn't recommend—even if it weren't your first full day in Europe. Then you return to Paris, see more sights, board a train, and see another major city many miles away? I couldn't even get past those two nightmare days to evaluate the rest of your itinerary.

With all due respect, and I am trying to be helpful (even if it does't sound that way) I am suspecting you haven't traveled to Europe much before, and are basing all of your planning on "must-sees" from the RS or other guide books. I would respectfully recommend you scale back your plans for your own sake, and settle into Europe for at least a full day to actually enjoy your trip rather than running in some sort of rat-race, have-to-see-everything-quickly, plan. As much as I love Normandy (8 trips there in the past 11 years, believe me I love that area), I would either stay in Paris the first full day, or cancel something else in your trip to give it the time it deserves before moving on.

mytoosense

I suggest you go back and read my post. If we are too tired the first day, we don't do the things on our list. No big deal.

Yes, the louvre closes at 9:45 on the night we will be there. What of it?

Two hours of travel in a day is nothing. Not sure why you think it's a big deal. Sure paris and Strasbourg arent geographically close to each other, but in the Era of 300kph trains, they are practically neighbors. Must be the Texan in me, I don't think Europe is intimidating at all, because everything is so close together

If you aren't going to read my post, then don't bother responding

I did read you post, and I initially responded with hotel recommendations. But then you posted an itinerary that is extreme at best. Regardless of how many of the four major sights you actually get to see on your first half-day (keep in mind you have to even arrive in Paris, get through customs and immigration, and then get into the city before seeing Tour Eiffel, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame), and then you think you'll be able to stay up to 9:45 in the Louvre before heading out for a day spent mostly traveling on trains etc. to spend a few hours in Normandy? This is an extreme, "must-see-everything-quickly" itinerary. Please try not to be defensive and take my recommendations into consideration. Maybe I'm wrong, and I'm sure if other regular travelers think I am off-base, they'll let me know. Enjoy your trip regardless.

I don't think you did read it. I clearly said that if we were too tired, everything on the first day was optional. That's why I said "walk by". We aren't going into the tower, the arch, of course not Notre Dame. Just to go by and take a photo of each can't possibly take that much time. Honestly there isn't anything in Paris that is a must see, that's why we're starting with it. As far as Normandy goes, it's two hours there, and two hours back. That's the definition of a day trip. I know we won't see everything,. Mainly interested in the American cemetery to pay our respects, and maybe one museum.

If it wasn't for the proximity to Omaha Beach, we wouldn't even be going to Paris.