Is Le Marais (4th) a good area to stay in Paris?

The 4th is the best single answer to where to stay in Paris, and the reason is geometry: Notre-Dame is ten minutes away, the Louvre fifteen, the Bastille ten in the other direction, and the restaurants and bars you will actually eat and drink in are on the same streets as the hotel. No other central district lets you spend three days without using the metro after dark.

It covers the lower Marais, the Ile de la Cite and the Ile Saint-Louis, so a third of what you came to see is inside the boundary. Rue des Rosiers and rue Vieille-du-Temple are the going-out core, the Pompidou is at the western edge, and the Jewish and gay quarters overlap through the middle of it. It is also one of the few parts of Paris where the shops open on a Sunday, which matters more than it sounds on a short trip.

The costs are real. The buildings are 17th century and older, so hotels are small, staircases are narrow, and a lift above the fourth floor is not a given - check before booking with a suitcase. Rooms on rue Vieille-du-Temple and the streets off it hear the bars until about 02:00 at weekends. And the rate matches the 1st without matching the space: a cheap room in the 4th is cheap because it faces a light well.