I personally prefer to answer questions on the regular newsboard, but others may feel differently. I believe that almost everything discussed on this board is of use to others, in the future if not today. I think it is possible to bring up unique travel needs without allowing hackers to track you down and steal your bank accounts! It is important to be frank about what you really want.
I can understand why you may not have liked NYC. But that's one reason the people on Trip Advisor/NYC try to dissuade people from staying "in or near Times Square." I tell people that you should not eat in any restaurant from which you can see Times Square. Our host, Rick Steves, has a rule to "walk three blocks away from the public square before looking for a restaurant.") Since your Rick Steves profile does not reveal where you live, we have no idea how often you might often enter big cities. I grew up in Manhattan, but over the years I have learned how attached people are to their automobiles - I say that not as a criticism, but as a recognition of why you are willing to make the tedious drive from the Loire to MSM and back in a day. (Our itinerary was in one of the linked threads.) The drive from Bayeux to MSM is not as tedious, but it's hard to explain that every interesting stop along the way (Like Vitre, Coutances, Dinan, or whatever) is a huge detour from the main roads, 20 minutes each way, and then a search for parking in a town that does not have a high-rise paid garage, like big cities in Europe do. (And the discovery that the ramps and stalls in that garage can barely contain the SUV some unwisely rent at the airport.)
It's not possible to recommend a single hotel in Paris, because most hotels in Paris regularly sell out at various moments in the year. One reason I thought of Chatelet (besides the Red RER) is that it has a pleasant historical urbanism about it (the Mairie, for example ... ) with history like the Tour St. Jacques, and a non-pretentious set of restaurant streets for an evening stroll and meal. That, to me, is a positive feature of a big city. But it's not like being in a stage set for Band of Brothers, is it? I like staying between the Palais Garnier and the Louvre.
The fact is that Paris, and France tend to be busy during the summer. You are going to experience crowding on MSM just like Times Square (although for the last year, Times Square has been a pale shadow of its regular crowding!) You are hardly the only family to value a kitchenette for your stay, and not for financial reasons. But that tells me that immersing yourselves in Paris is not really an objective. France is famous for its food, even its cheaper family-fare. I can't imagine cooking for myself on vacation, even in a country with less famous food, like the Netherlands. (Even Belgium has better food than the Netherlands.)
It's fine to take the car to Giverny, but most people do it as a train daytrip from Paris. That's not "better", but it exposes you to the local life of mass transportation (including the many regional rail stations in Paris), maybe bicycling to the Garden from the station, and (yes, alas) the awful bathroom in the bar across from the bike rental! If you insulate yourself from local life, you learn less about France and Paris. It sounds dumb to recall that I took the NYC subway to High School every day, a ride of about 20 minutes. But there you are. I learned something about NYC when I went to a Vietnam war demonstration one morning at 5AM. I didn't know that the subway was (pre Covid, of course) more crowded at 5AM than it was at school time.
