Place de la Republique an unsavory area

It's important to choose where you stay in Paris, since you'll be walking around that area a lot, entering the metro there, and eating dinner there. I have visited Paris six times, and the most recent time we stayed in a nice hotel but it was in the Place de la Republique area, which added an edgy tinge to our trip. This area is dirty! There is the smell of pee every few feet. There are people sleeping in tents. And the square where you enter the metro, Place de la Republique, has dozens of suspicious characters. In fact, every evening, police arrive with sirens in ten or more vans full of policemen with guns, prepared for whatever trouble is about to happen next. The smell in this square is unlike anything you have experienced! Wow. Just avoid!! 

We tried to look for a restaurant on the side streets away from the square but with the smell of pee at every doorstep, it is just unappetizing. The restaurant we ate at, across the street from the square, was just unpleasant, with incredibly rude waiters, and when we got back to our hotel after dinner we read lots of reviews about rats. Our stay in Paris would have been more like the Paris you dream about if we had chosen a different area! 
More people live in Paris now than in the times when it gained its fame as a romantic, glamorous place. It is very crowded now, with lots of crime. This makes it important that you plan carefully if you want a pleasant stay. If you want to still feel dreamy about Paris when you leave, you will have to hide a lot of things from your sight and smell haha. 
I would stay in the Left Bank, around the Odeon metro or Saint Germain area. Place d'Italie is cheaper to stay, and peaceful, but far out from the attractions. And I would spend most of my time walking the banks of the Seine River, where Paris is still wonderful like it used to be. I also would not miss Jardin du Luxembourg.
For more advice on where to stay in Paris, and train stations and airlines to avoid, check out my blog entry: Places to Stay and Places to Avoid in Paris. 

Directions

Place de la Republique is in the 11th arrondissement. It's better to stay in the lower numbered arrondissements if possible, 8th or less. The zip code of a hotel tells you the arrondissement it is in- check the last two letters of the zip code.

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