# Is Upper Marais (3rd) a Good Area to Stay in Paris? Map & Verdict Verdict: Recommended. Book here without thinking about it. Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris/upper-marais Every Paris district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-paris.md The Marais without the queue. Same 17th-century streets as the 4th, the Picasso museum, and evenings that stay quiet enough to sleep through. Facts: 20 min walk to Notre-Dame; 45 min to the airport; price €€€; best for couples, first-timers, food, quiet; lines 3, 5, 8, 9, 11. The Marais does not stop at the boundary between the 4th and the 3rd - it just gets quieter. The northern half, the Haut Marais, has the Musee Picasso, the Musee Carnavalet's neighbours, the Marche des Enfants Rouges from 1615, and designer shops that are actually independent rather than a chain doing an impression of one. It costs a little less than the 4th and it is a five-minute walk further from Notre-Dame - twenty minutes rather than ten. That is the whole difference, and for most people it is the better trade: you are still walking home from dinner, but the street outside the window is not a bar street. The catches are minor and real. Metro coverage is at the edges rather than the middle: Arts et Metiers, Filles du Calvaire, Republique and Saint-Sebastien-Froissart ring it, so expect a five-minute walk to a station. The northern end towards Republique is ordinary Paris rather than medieval. And hotels here are small and boutique-priced, so there is little cheap stock when the city is full. What works: - The Musee Picasso and the Marche des Enfants Rouges are inside the district - Twenty minutes on foot to Notre-Dame, ten to the Pompidou - Quieter at night than the 4th while sharing its streets and restaurants - Independent shops rather than the chains that took the lower Marais What does not: - Metro stations ring the district rather than crossing it - The northern end towards Republique is ordinary and dull - Boutique hotels are priced like the 4th with fewer rooms to choose from - Very little budget stock, so it sells out first in high season Hotels in Upper Marais (3rd): https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D3%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. - [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. - [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.