# Staying in Gare de Lyon & Bercy (12th), Paris: Map & Verdict Verdict: Mixed. Fine for some travellers, wrong for others. Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/gare-de-lyon-bercy Every Paris district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris.md Gare de Lyon, Bercy and half of the Bois de Vincennes. Cheap, well connected and almost entirely residential - the hotels are all at the western end. Facts: 30 min walk to Notre-Dame; 50 min to the airport; price €€; best for budget, business trips, families, quiet; lines 1, 6, 8, 14, RER A, RER D. Almost everything worth booking in the 12th is in its first kilometre: the blocks around Gare de Lyon and Bastille, where metro 1 and 14 get you to Chatelet in five minutes and the walk to Notre-Dame is half an hour. Rates there run well under the 4th on the other side of the same square. The rest of the district is long. It runs east through Daumesnil and Picpus and then becomes the Bois de Vincennes, which more than doubles its size and is a forest with a chateau in it. The Coulee verte Rene-Dumont, the elevated park that the New York High Line copied, starts behind the Opera Bastille and runs four and a half kilometres east, which is the best thing here and free. What you do not get is a reason to be in the district itself. Bercy Village is a restored wine warehouse street with chain restaurants in it, the Cinematheque is excellent if you want a film, and beyond that the 12th is where Parisians live. Book the western end for the price and the trains; ignore anything advertised as the 12th that is out past Porte Doree. What works: - Gare de Lyon puts the TGV south and RER A under the district - Metro 1 and 14 reach Chatelet in about five minutes - Rates run well under Bastille and the Marais across the boundary - The Coulee verte runs 4.5 km east from the Opera Bastille, and is free What does not: - Half an hour on foot to Notre-Dame from the station end, an hour from the rest - Nothing on a first visit's list is inside the arrondissement - Station-side rooms are functional business stock with train noise - The eastern half is the Bois de Vincennes, so 'in the 12th' can mean very far out Hotels in Gare de Lyon & Bercy (12th): https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D12%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1 ## Other districts in Paris - [Louvre & Les Halles (1st)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/louvre-les-halles): Recommended. The Louvre, the Tuileries and the busiest interchange in France, in one arrondissement. You pay for the address in rate and in crowds, and you never need a metro before dinner. - [Sentier & Grands Boulevards (2nd)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/sentier-grands-boulevards): Recommended. The smallest arrondissement and the best-value central one: covered passages, the Montorgueil food street, and rates under the 1st across the boundary. - [Upper Marais (3rd)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/upper-marais): Recommended. The Marais without the queue. Same 17th-century streets as the 4th, the Picasso museum, and evenings that stay quiet enough to sleep through. - [Le Marais (4th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/le-marais): Recommended. Medieval streets, the Pompidou, both islands in the Seine, and more bars per block than anywhere else in central Paris. Ten minutes on foot from Notre-Dame, priced accordingly. - [Latin Quarter (5th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/latin-quarter): Recommended. The Left Bank answer: the Pantheon, the Sorbonne, the Jardin des Plantes and the cheapest central rooms on this side of the river. Fifteen minutes on foot from Notre-Dame. - [Saint-Germain (6th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/saint-germain): Recommended. The Jardin du Luxembourg, the galleries, and the most expensive mid-range rooms in Paris. If the budget takes it, nothing else in the city is this easy to stay in. - [Eiffel Tower & Invalides (7th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/eiffel-tower-invalides): Mixed. The Eiffel Tower, the Musee d'Orsay, the Invalides and most of the French government. Grand, expensive, and short of anywhere to eat once the ministries close. - [Champs-Elysees (8th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/champs-elysees): Mixed. Luxury hotels, the Arc de Triomphe and the executive branch of the French government. A business district that empties at the weekend, and there is no cheap room in it. - [Opera & Pigalle (9th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/opera-pigalle): Recommended. The department stores, the Opera Garnier and South Pigalle. The best mid-range value that is still a walk from the centre, with a red-light strip along its northern edge. - [Gare du Nord & Canal (10th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/gare-du-nord-canal-saint-martin): Mixed. Two districts under one number. The canal Saint-Martin end is one of the best evenings in Paris; the two-station end is where cheap rooms are cheap for a reason. - [Bastille & Oberkampf (11th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/bastille-oberkampf): Recommended. Where Paris eats and drinks rather than where it poses. The densest arrondissement in Europe, a third cheaper than the Marais, and there is almost nothing to look at. - [Place d’Italie & Chinatown (13th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/place-ditalie-chinatown): Mixed. Europe's biggest Chinatown, the national library and 1970s tower blocks. The cheapest safe rooms in Paris, forty minutes on foot from the centre. - [Montparnasse & Denfert (14th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/montparnasse-denfert): Mixed. The catacombs, the old Montparnasse cafes and the Orly bus. Residential, fairly priced and short of reasons to leave the hotel except to catch something. - [Vaugirard & Grenelle (15th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/vaugirard-grenelle): Avoid. The largest arrondissement, safe and quiet and residential, whose hotels advertise an Eiffel Tower that most of them are forty minutes from. An hour on foot to Notre-Dame. - [Trocadero & Passy (16th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/trocadero-passy): Avoid. The best view of the Eiffel Tower and the least reason to sleep near it. Wealthy, residential, and shut by ten - you pay central rates to be nowhere central. - [Batignolles & Ternes (17th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/batignolles-ternes): Mixed. Three districts under one number: Ternes is an extension of the 8th, Batignolles is a village with a market, and the Epinettes end is closer to the 18th. No sights at all. - [Montmartre (18th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/montmartre): Mixed. The hill is one of the best things in Paris and the arrondissement is not the hill. Half the room rate of the Marais, fifty-five minutes on foot from Notre-Dame. - [La Villette & Buttes-Chaumont (19th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/la-villette-buttes-chaumont): Avoid. Parks, canals, the science museum and the cheapest chain rooms inside the ring road. An hour on foot from the centre, and on the city's own least-safe list after dark. - [Belleville & Pere-Lachaise (20th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/belleville-pere-lachaise): Mixed. Pere-Lachaise, Belleville's kitchens and the cheapest good food in the city. Fifty minutes on foot from anything on the postcard, and thin on hotels.