Paris & France, Family of 5 Affordable Lodging

For a family of five you generally have two options, an apartment or two hotel rooms. The hotel rooms in many if not most of the hotel rooms I have been in do not have connecting doors, so with kids , perhaps an apartment makes alot more sense. I would look for a 2 bed room apartment, somewhere in central Paris, the 4th( also known as the Marais), 5th( Latin Quarter) , 6th( ST Germain) or 7th(Eiffel Tower) arrondissemonts are popular for tourists. You can tell which area a hotel or apartment is in from the address, all of Paris is divided into 19 arrondissomonts and the zipcode for Paris is 750_ _ the last two digits are the area, so 75005 means place is in the 5th( Latin Quarter). Most of Paris would be fine, I personally avoid the area around the Champs Elysees though, big chain stores, overpriced cafes , and noisey at night. The advantage to two hotel rooms are : two bathrooms( harder to find in many apartments), and no work for mom( cleaning or cooking).
The advantages to an apartment, more room to lounge around in, a kitchen to make at least breakfasts and save money, and two seperate bedrooms usaully cheaper then two hotel rooms( but not always, shop around)

Although not always easy to find, accomodations for a family of 5 are out there in France. We're a family of 5 and have stayed in connecting hotel rooms, B&Bs and hotels with a family room, and even a family room with private shower in a youth hostel. All in France. What do you consider "affordable"? That is a very subjective word. And suggested Itinerary will depend a lot on what your family is interested in. Have you been to Paris before? If not, I would suggest at least 5 days in Paris and then you could fully explore Normandy in 4 days (which you'd need if anyone is a big WWII history buff and you still want to see all the region has to offer), or skim it over in two and skim the Loire in 2 as well. The Burdundy region is also a reasonable distance from Paris and doable in a few days.

We did exactly this in 2009 with children then age 7, 11 and 13. We did rentals in Paris, Provence and Dordogne. We did a B&B in Colmar (one room for 5) and Gimmelwald, Switzerland (two rooms). We stayed in a youth hostel in Carcassonne (room for 5) and small hotels in Amboise, Chinon, (single rooms for 5), Mont St Michel and Honfleur (multi-room suite for 5) With the exception of the B&B in Switzerland, we never had two separate rooms in a hotel. Our average cost for lodgings on that trip was $145 (2009 $=.7Euro) per night, largely due to the value of the rentals (making food costs low, too). With only 9 days at hand, rentals are unlikely to be useful unless you spend the whole time in Paris. Youth hostels are generally about $25 per bed and are usually nicer than you might imagine. Our children like them better than hotels. They welcome people of all ages. Note our blog summery here; http://lee-reid2010.blogspot.com/2010/05/france-2009.html and read the following blog entries for notes on expenses. PM me for any specific questions.