My husband and I spent a total of about a week in Paris before/after a Go Ahead food and wine small group tour in Bordeaux and Burgundy this Sept./Oct. Here a few recommendations:
--highly recommend Hotel Signature Saint-Germain Des Pres. Family owned, friendly, room was very nice and reasonably priced, bathroom modernized. They helped us with restaurant recommendations and some reservations, arranged waiting car pick up from airport. Great location, lots of cafes nearby, near Babylone-Sevres Metro and Bon Marche department store and food hall.
--at the end of the trip we stayed at a RS recommended hotel--Hotel de la Motte Picquet. It was ok but more expensive by far than the Hotel Signature Saint-Germain --maybe due to rugby tournament going on? It was fine but in hindsight we would have just used the first hotel for both ends of our Paris stay. We had wanted to try the Rue Cler area since RS likes it so much. It is a handy street for food vendors for sure but there are great food shops all over Paris, as we learned from our Paris by Mouth tours (see next section!)
--Paris by Mouth food tours--these are terrific! If you are a foodie and like to learn about French food and culinary arts, this is for you! Check their website for all their offerings which are focused around different areas in Paris. We did two tours--North Marais and Left Bank. The guides are very knowledgeable--one of ours was a former chef. We went on a walking tour to several high quality shops--artisan boulangerie, cheese shop, pastry, chocolatier, boucherie, where the guide explains what she is buying for our small group. We ended up at a wine shop where the group sits at a table with paired wines and tries all the food. It is a fun and educational experience. Lasts about 3 hours. You might want to do the tour early in your trip because you will then know more about what you want to buy at food stops during your trip. They need to be reserved in advance of leaving since they do book up. A benefit of doing a tour is you get a free year of their newsletter on Substack which gives you access to their periodic restaurant recommendations. We visited several of their recommendations and they were great.
--Paris Walks--these are great for learning more about various areas of Paris. We did the Marais walk and the French Revolution walk. Both excellent.. Check out their website for all the many offerings. Last about 2 hours.
--Restaurant recommendations--we liked all of these which were recommended mostly by Paris by Mouth.
Semilla; Mer & Coquillage; Elmer; Georgette. We did one blow out dinner at Epicure, a 3 star Michelin restaurant. Fabulous.
--We spent a lot of time walking around Paris, eating or stopping at cafes, and doing the tours noted above. We visited 3 museums-- Musee d' Orsay and Musee Marmottan (we like impressionist art!), Musee Carnavalet (history of Paris--very interesting if you like history and free). We attended an evening concert at Sainte Chapelle, which was wonderful.
Hope this helps someone!