Ile St. Louis or other district - where to rent in paris with teens

How many nights will you be staying in Paris? Do you want separate bedrooms? (I know that sounds funny, but we have rented an apartment in Paris and one bed is in the living room (murphy bed) and the bunk beds are in a hallway). What is your budget? http://www.vrbo.com/303742#rates This is a link for an apt. on the 2nd floor and "The apartment stays at walking distance of "The Louvre", the "rue de rivoli", "les Halles" shopping center and garden, "Centre Pompidou" museum of modern art and "Palais Royal". Not less than 5 subway stations are easily accessible."

Gail, Take the place! Don't even question it! No elevator, no problem! Just give the teens a challenge as to which of them can take more luggage up the steps than the other... you'll secretly win in the end! What a location! We were just in Paris in September and your location is PERFECT! For part of your transportation package, get a batobus pass... we loved hopping on this river-bus and took it right down to the Eiffel tower, explored for a few hours, then rode it back again! The bato-bus-stop is just north of you on the other side of the river. A fantastic restaurant located around the corner from you is where the pont-st-louis bridge between the islands is at, "Le flore en l'ile". great view of Notre Dame while eating a very affordable and fantastically made meal. And for dessert, "L'amorino" gelato is even closer! Ahh, you can have it everyday! At night, walk over to the Latin quarter and follow the music and lights and have a great time! There are so many things to do there in Paris! My only advice, do only one thing a day (i.e., today we will walk to the Eiffel Tower, tomorro we will walk to the Arc de Triomph, and the next day we will not explore any famous Parisian landmarks) and walk walk walk!

It's a nice area for sure and it's convenient for walking and public transit, but so are many other central Arrondissements in Paris. I've lived in many 4th, 5th and 6th floor walk up apartments in the US. I have relatives scattered all over Europe who live in walk ups (except when they say they live on the 5th floor it's actually the 6th floor!). Stairs may be fine when you aren't carrying anything. But when it's hot, you are tired or you have luggage or groceries, it becomes old really fast. As for 5th floor apartments having great breezes and light... Yeah, that breeze thing in July can often be nothing more than more extremely hot air blowing into an already hot apartment. And if there is no breeze at all during a hot day, then it's just stifling. The "lots of light" coming in from the windows will also raise the temps in the apartment and heat rises from lower level apartments as well. If you can't find a place with both a lift and AC, I'd recommend looking for at least one or the other.

Wow, you folks are wonderful. Thank you so much. VIP just sent me a slew more of apartments to look at. Frankly I am alittle overwhelmed by all the choices. My feeling is we want something where we can get a good nights sleep. And that we can go back to, get cleaned up late afternoon, and head out for a nice dinner. I suspect we will only eat breakfast in the apt, and not cook. In Paris, we want to enjoy the food too. And if all we remember is the apt. then we haven't seen Paris! If we don't us VIP and we want to stay on island, which sounds like a great choice whom else might you recommend to rent a flat from. While we are in good shape, I am frankly alittle concerned that the stairs willl indeed get old fast, otherwise, i would jump at this one, as it seems to have all we need. We don't have to have two bedrooms, but we do need 3 beds to sleep on as the kids are a boy 18 and a girl 15, and my husband and I. If you didnt stay on the island, what would be your preference for districts?

Ile St. Louis is a wonderful area to stay. Very quiet at night and beautiful.

Personally, we enjoy the Marais first, St. Germain second, Bastille or Latin Quarter after that. We stayed between the Gare de l'Est and the Canal St. Martin for 6 months and liked it a lot, but it's a little grungier. Everything is pretty centrally located until you get to the outer areas of the outer districts: 13th, 14th, 15th, 8th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th.

Ile Saint Louis is my first choice, it's my favorite neighborhood in Paris. It's like a village unto itself, beautiful, charming, surrounded by the Seine river, in the heart of everything and has lots of good restaurants. Jean-Paul recommended La Flore en L'Ile - that's my favorite cafe in all of Paris. Summer of 2010 we rented an apt on ISL, we were on the 5th floor w/no elevator (6th floor really) and had no a/c. It did get warm and climbing the stairs was a drag at times, but no a/c wasn't a problem - as Bets said, we got good air flow and a breeze at times being that high up. It was all worth it to us though, staying on ISL was heaven. My second choices would be either the Latin Quarter, Marais or Saint Germain - all wonderful. During the summer, at night, there's lots of great street entertainers in front of Notre Dame, and on the pedestrian bridge behind Notre Dame leading onto Ile Saint Louis, you and your kids will enjoy that.

Thanks everyone, really appreciate the advice! We are looking at both the island and the St. Germaine areas. I'll let you know what we come up with Gail

Well i always get ac in Paris in summer, have not always needed it,, but when I have needed it,, it has been crucial.. The climate I am used to is similar to Seattle,, and its never super hot here, but even when its very warm we have sea breezes,, I recall no sea breezes in Paris, and all that stone and cement,, makes hot Paris hotter. I also do not like a lot of street noise,, so leaving windows open at night is not something I would do,, those garbage and street cleaner guys are out early,, so even if traffic is not an issue, then there noise is.

Just to clarify, I believe the Ile St. Louis apartment does have AC. The issue with that one is the stairs. When they say fifth floor, is that European numbering? That would be sixth floor as we count them in the US.

Yes Lola it does have air conditioning, and it is European floors, so its really the 6th floor. 96 steps VIP gave me the names of several who have stayed in the apartment, and every one of them said while it would certainly be nice to have a lift, that they would still rent the apt again. They absolutely loved staying on the island .

First, let me say thank you to each of you for your sage advice and thoughts. So what did we decide? We booked the apartment. We love the location (which consistently is written up by as feeling like old paris), it appears to be convenient to transportation, and quieter with most traffic disappearing at night. It has air (yes European air), and the right configuration of 3 beds and is a nice size at 65m. the price was really good too. The ONLY thing that held me back was the 5th floor (96 steps), no lift. Well I walked down and up the stairs at my office today, and wouldn't you know it - it was 94 steps! No problem. Now granted I haven't been sightseeing all day in Paris in the heat, but I also exchanged mails with several who rented the place before in July and all loved the apartment and said the stairs were not really an issue. Thank you again one and all for the advice. And yes Jean Paul, I will have my teens get breakfast for us!!