Our Apartment and Neighborhood

Our apt. building  15 rue du Louvre

For this trip I wanted to keep the itinerary simple.   I had a list of "must see" sights.  These are the ones we didn't get to on our first and second trips.
We chose an apt. close to the center of Paris near the Louvre and a couple blocks to the #1 Metro line. (The #1 is the main E-W line and connects to most of the N-S lines.)



Finding an apt. is easy.  Finding the right apt. takes very careful scrutiny of the websites.  You must decide what you absolutely must have in regard to living quarters and amenities and how much you are willing to spend.  It is very helpful to know which part of the city you'd like to be in and which areas you should probably steer clear of.  Of course, experience helps. Websites like Virtual Tourist or TripAdvisor are good because you can read reader reviews and comments.

Our apt criteria:

• near Metro #1
• near the Seine (1,4,6,7 arrondissements)
• must have elevator
• 1 bedroom (about 40m2)
• good sized TV (small say TV and they are little mini sets)
• living area with comfortable seating for 2
• roomy bathroom (with space for all your "stuff")
• washer/dryer

The rental site should have LOTS of photos; if it doesn't it's hiding something.  Ours was exceptional. The apt was exactly like the photos.  We were close to a pedestrian area:  rue Montorgueil and Forum des Halles.

directly across from our apt~avenue to Les Halles



same place showing the entry to the underground roadways by-passing Les Halles



walking further towards Les Halles

Les Halles shopping district

rue Montorgueil..we ate here alot!

Also in the area is St. Eustache.  I beautiful cathedral with a large place adjacent to it.  On Sunday evenings there are free organ concerts~of course you must check the posters for dates.  I showed up and there was not a concert that night.  Then the following week when I knew there was one, I slept through it.   Having been to an organ concert at Notre Dame the last time, I was really looking forward to this one.  There is nothing like the Toccata in Fugue played in a cavernous cathedral!

St. Eustache from Les Halles

St. Eustache

The large place in front of St. Eustache.  Bourse in the background

"the Head" in the place in front of St. Eustache.

All in all I would say that the location choice was not a bad one.  Rue Montorgueil is lined with restaurants and 2 ice cream shops.  Our favorite restaurant, La Perla (italian) was very close and we went there at least 3 times.
During the day, Les Halles is a mass of people. At night it is not the best area.  The one downside of this particular area was the number of homeless persons.  Frederic told us that there were many homeless due to the "economic crisis".  We weren't approached but it was disconcerting and at times the smell was not pleasant either.   If we had been one block further west we would have never noticed this.

As you walk through Les Halles you come to The Pompidou Center, our next stop.