# Staying in Opera & Pigalle (9th), Paris: Map & Verdict

Verdict: Recommended. Book here without thinking about it.

Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/opera-pigalle
Every Paris district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris.md

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.

Facts: 38 min walk to Notre-Dame; 40 min to the airport; price €€€; best for first-timers, budget, nightlife, food, couples; lines 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 12, RER A, RER E.

The 9th is where the mid-range hotels are, and there are a lot of them: this is the district the coach tours and the department stores share. Galeries Lafayette and Printemps are on boulevard Haussmann, the Opera Garnier is at the southern corner, and the passages and Grands Boulevards theatres run east from it.

The interesting half is the north. South Pigalle - SoPi, if you must - is now bars, small restaurants and the best cocktails in the city, on streets that were the fading sex trade twenty years ago and are half-and-half today. Boulevard de Clichy along the top boundary is still the sex shops and the strip clubs, and the blocks either side of place Pigalle are the ones to look at on a map before booking.

Between the two, the middle of the arrondissement is nothing much - offices, apartment blocks and the Saint-Lazare approaches. Rates reflect that, which is the reason to be here: a four-star in the 9th costs what a three-star costs in the 1st, and Notre-Dame is a forty-minute walk or four stops on metro 7.

What works:
- Four-star rooms at three-star money by central Paris standards
- Galeries Lafayette, Printemps and the Opera Garnier are all inside it
- South Pigalle has the best bar and small-restaurant strip in the city
- Metro 7 reaches Chatelet in about eight minutes; RER A and E both stop here

What does not:
- Nearly forty minutes on foot to Notre-Dame
- Boulevard de Clichy and place Pigalle are still the sex trade
- The middle of the arrondissement is offices and has nothing in it
- Hotels around the department stores sit on coach-tour streets

Hotels in Opera & Pigalle (9th): https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D9%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.
- [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.
- [Gare de Lyon & Bercy (12th)](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/gare-de-lyon-bercy): Mixed. 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.
- [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.
