Recommended Hotels in the 6th Arrondissement of Paris (Saint-Germain and the Jardin du Luxembourg)

A Haussmann building on quiet Rue Stanislas, between the Jardin du Luxembourg and Boulevard du Montparnasse. 41 rooms, and downstairs a small spa with a hammam tiled in sparkling mosaics and blue lighting. Breakfast here is entirely French: regional charcuterie, warm waffles, cheeses, and eggs as a small nod to the neighbors across the Channel. Once a week they hold a “French hour” with wine and cheese from a different region each time, and the first glass is on the house. It isn’t the heart of Saint-Germain: you’re a fifteen-minute walk from there, in the area right next to Montparnasse, which I personally love. Notre-Dame-des-Champs station is two minutes away.

If walking is hard for you and you’re looking for an accessible hotel, this is the one. A family-run hotel, now in its third generation, since the 1920s. It’s one of the few addresses in the arrondissement where the rooms are truly large: a walk-in closet, a sofa bed and room to open two suitcases without moving the bed. The upper floors have suites with a terrace and a view of the Eiffel Tower, and from some rooms you can see the Sacré-Cœur. Breakfast is hot and hearty: sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs and cheeses, with a gluten-free option too. The decor is conservative and not exactly young.

A 17th-century building on Rue Jacob. Breakfast is served in a vaulted cellar with exposed stone walls. Outside there’s a small Tuscan-style courtyard with a bar and a fireplace, and the rooms have Pierre Frey linens. From the top-floor suite you can see the bell tower of the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the rooftops of Paris. The Musée Delacroix and Place de Furstenberg are two minutes away, and the Louvre is about a ten-minute walk (give or take). The basic rooms are 16 square meters, which counts as fairly large for this category, and breakfast costs extra. Ask for a room facing the courtyard.

A Haussmann building on Rue Racine, redesigned by Sandra Benhamou with plenty of literary touches, which suits a street named after a playwright. The lobby has a bar with a champagne and cocktail menu and a quiet library corner, and breakfast, with pastries, savory dishes and vegan options too, is served in the basement. Cluny-La Sorbonne station is 270 meters away and the Senate is five minutes away. As for the downsides, keep in mind that the rooms are fairly small and the elevator is slow. What’s described as a balcony is sometimes just a window ledge, so check the room carefully before you book.

This isn’t a hotel but 17 serviced apartments on Rue Monsieur-le-Prince, with a full kitchen that includes a dishwasher, a washing machine and a Nespresso machine whose capsules are refilled every day. Downstairs there’s a heated pool, a hammam and a sauna. The larger units reach 80 square meters (great for families). The Sorbonne is three minutes away and the gardens six. The furniture isn’t new, and spa access costs extra. For a family staying a week, it’s a great deal.

Only sixteen rooms, a few steps from Rue de Buci and Odéon station. Every room has watercolor illustrations of the imaginary couple the hotel is named after, and the floors are solid oak. The lobby has an honesty bar, and in the morning they make eggs to order, crêpes and fresh-squeezed juice. If you ask in advance, you can get a gluten-free breakfast. The rooms are small and the elevator fits two people, snugly. Pack light.

Only ten rooms, in a 17th-century building, each furnished differently with antiques. Rue Gît-le-Cœur is a narrow lane that cars hardly ever enter, and it leads straight to the Seine. The rooms are much larger than usual for Paris and the beds are huge. Breakfast is served across the street. Notre-Dame is a five-minute walk away. The decor isn’t young, the elevator is very small and some rooms are dim. Ask for a high floor. And if you’re really bored and feel like a bit of sport, you’ll be happy to know that the street itself has a 19th-century fencing school that’s still in business.

You enter through a vaulted gateway on Rue Jacob, cross a cobbled courtyard and only then reach the hotel. Its treasure is the garden behind it, with two old chestnut trees, and on nice days breakfast is served there. The croissants come every morning from the bakery next door, and there are scrambled eggs and bacon too. The vaulted cellar holds a bar with velvet armchairs that stays open until midnight. The rooms are small, as in quite a few hotels around here. Ask for a room facing the garden.

A side lane off Rue de Buci, and a building partly made of stone and exposed wooden beams. 33 rooms and no two alike: colorful fabrics, traditional furniture and marble bathrooms. Breakfast is served in a vaulted stone cellar. The location is the real story here: four minutes to the Pont Neuf and ten to the Louvre. The basic rooms are 12 square meters and the elevator is tiny. Pay a little more and you’ll get a room you can actually move around in.

The hotel stands on Rue de la Grande-Chaumière, right next to the art academy that bears the street’s name, and according to the stories told here, Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) and Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) all stayed here in the early decades of the 20th century. Each of the 54 rooms is designed after a different art movement of the early 20th century. Breakfast is served on a glass-covered veranda that opens onto an inner garden. Vavin station is right next to the hotel. Breakfast is basic and the Wi-Fi sometimes acts up (I hope they’ve fixed that). Ask for a room facing the garden.

A chain hotel, but with something that’s hard to find at this price in the 6th arrondissement: nine of its 42 rooms have a private Jacuzzi. Saint-Placide metro station is across the street, and a second station is fifty meters away. Le Bon Marché and the shops of Rue de Rennes are right nearby, and the gardens are a five-minute walk. The decor is standard and the street is noisy. Ask for a room that doesn’t face the front.