From Teresa Plowright,
Your Guide to Family Vacations.
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Welcome to the City of Light! Read about Paris hotels below; also, be sure to take the sightseeing photo tour, with pictures plus practical advice for visiting Paris with kids.

What are Paris hotels like?

Accommodations fall into several types:

• American-style chain hotels
• luxury French hotels
• European chains such as Sofitel
• hundreds of modestly priced and even downright cheap hotels.

Compared to other great cities, lodgings in Paris are a bargain, if you're willing to consider a small place with character.

As the Unofficial Guide to Paris explains about Paris hotels:

The fact that the city is so old and dense and is bound by strict building codes has protected Paris from the development of numerous large hotels inside the city, which has protected the smaller hotels. Most Paris hotels have less than 60 rooms and are independently owned or family-run...

he little independent hotels with character offer you personality and originality. What you don't get is the predictability of chains or the consistency of standards and generic tastes.... A lovely hotels with 16 rooms in the Marais [a great district], built in the 17th century and decorated in Louis XIV-style original furniture, may not have an elevator, and most likely does not have air-conditioned rooms, ice machines, or even a bellboy. It's the perfect spot for one couple, but cramped and impractical for another.

-- Unofficial Guide to Paris

What type of Paris hotel suits me best?

If you absolutely need American standards for room size and bathrooms, stick to the Hiltons and their ilk. The European hotel chains Sofitel and Novatel are another option: you're assured of certain amenities, but basically you're staying in a standardized hotel-chain-- which may be exactly what you want.

I'm partial to smaller places with personality: as long as a room is clean, (as has always been the case), I'm willing to sacrifice state-of-the-art plumbing for charm, local flavor, and affordability.

What can I expect with a smaller Paris hotel?

All Paris hotels are ranked by rigid criteria (including details such as number of electrical outlets, shutters on windows, etc.). Paris has nearly a thousand two- and three-star hotels; several hundred small hotels have one or no stars but are perfectly adequate for bargain-hunters.

As the Unofficial Guide to Paris says, the one and two star places are "nothing fancy but are wholly reliable for very little money... They offer not only the essentials, but their own kind of low-brow Parisian charm". Often you'll find a little garden or courtyard; and you can pick a great area, such as the Latin Quarter or the Marais.

Families will find that "kids sleep free in parents' room" is not a familiar concept: you pay by the bed; but you should still find many affordable choices for a room with four beds.

Will some aspects of our Paris hotel seem, er, strange?

Here's a few things your kids might exclaim about:

• the elevator might be tiny.
• you'll likely find bathtubs, not showers. (How would you install a shower with 15-foot ceilings, anyway?) The bathtub will probably have a showerhead on a long flexible hose-- quite convenient for washing a child's hair.
• bathtubs come in various shapes, such as the sitting tub.
• all bathrooms have bidets.

• the ground floor is never called the first floor! It's the Rez-de-chausee (ray de show-say), and the "premier etage" (first floor: prem-yare ay-taj) is one floor up.

Je ne parle pas francais!

Will anyone speak English, at a smaller place? Probably the receptionist will speak some English; if you're worried, inquire when you book.

Finding a Paris hotel

If you happen to arrive in a Paris airport without room reservations, head to the Information Stands operated by the Aeroport de Paris. Over a hundred hotels fax the airports each morning offering rooms at savings up to 50%. You'll pay a deposit on the spot.

Fr good suggestions about small Paris hotels, try:

• Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel: a range of prices
• Alphabetical listand quick impression of hundreds of Paris hotels
• Cheap Sleeps- article on small places with charm

Take me to Paris Sightseeing with Kids

• Eiffel Tower
• Rodin Sculpture Garden
• The Seine
• Notre Dame
• The Louvre