hotels in Paris

Ellen, I think you should re-post this in the "To the West" section, where there are lots of posts about Paris hotels. When you do, tell what your budget is for a hotel and this will help people to advise you. Etap hotels, I believe, are on the outskirts of the city, one reason among others, for the low room rates.

I stayed at Hotel Daval in 2007, based on the recommendation from my Rick Steves guidebook. We were in a triple room and found it to be spacious, clean, comfortable and affordable. We loved it so much that we are going to stay here again when we go to Paris this May. It is located near the Place de la Bastille and down the street from an incredible crepe stand. We had just a short walk - about 20 minutes - to Notre Dame and the other sites on Il de la Cite, a little farther to the Pantheon and a little farther in another direction to the Louvre. We walked all the way to L'arc de Triomphe (down the Champse Elysees) and all the way to the Invalides and the Eiffel Tower, but I'd recommend just hopping on the subway if you are tired. I love the neighborhood because it doesn't feel very touristy, so when you wake up in the morning, you get an authentic Parisian experience.

One unrelated piece of advice: definitely buy the Paris Museum Pass. We found it well worth our money because we could pop in and out of museums that we wouldn't have been interested in enough to pay for and got to cut all of the lines!