Where to stay near Paris/commutable

[clam]

Hi,
We're travelling down to the Alps in early August and want to stop by Paris on the way (and Disneyland on the way back - have found a cheapy place for that bit).

Any recommendations as to how best to do this? We would probably arrive early afternoon, and have the rest of that day, plus the whole of the next, leaving for the mountains first thing the one after that.

I'm assuming we'll leave the car outside the city at a hotel and travel in on public transport???? Good plan, or is driving in and forking out for parking a better idea? No idea really. Going round in circles.

I do know that we'd need to book tickets for the Eiffel Tower to avoid queues. That's about as far as I've got!

We stayed at Easter this year at the Novotel Suite hotel at Porte De Montreuil, almost on the Peripherique. Car parking outside. Huge Carrefour supermarket next door. Rooms sleep up to 4 in comfort and have fridge and kettle. Metro (3 mins walk away) takes half an hour to the Arc De Triomphe area)

Ah, that's exactly the sort of info I need. Thank you.

Re: Eiffel Tower - we've just come back from Paris, and were unable to book tickets. It seems they release them 3 months in advance (limited number of tickets only) which we were unaware of, and they had all gone. You may be lucky if you want tickets for early August, so start checking out the website.

If not, you can queue for lift tickets on arrival if you're prepared to stand there for ages or, if your dcs are old enough, go to the south pillar and buy tickets to walk up - 5 Eu for adults and 3 Eu for kids. Takes 10-15 mins to walk to the 1st level, and another 10 or so to the 2nd level; my dcs are 12 & 9 and managed it with no problems.

From the 2nd level, you can queue to buy a ticket for the lift to the top. They close them from time to time if it's busy, but usually re-open when it's calmer, so ask when they plan to re-open if you get up there and they're closed. We waited about 30 mins, and the lifts re-opened, so we got up to the top with no difficulty.

For transport, if you're staying outside the peripherique, depending which zone you're in, it might be worth looking at either a Mobilils pass or Paris Visite pass, which both give you unlimited travel on Metro, RER and buses.