In the run-up to our trip last summer (August 2015) we were talking about packing, and I offered that Rick Steves says that one only needs to pack two pairs of slacks or two skirts or the equivalent. To which the household tween retorted "who is this Rick Steves, anyway?".
Rick Steves of course has a travel advice empire, consisting of an eponymous series of travel guide books (chief amongst which is his Europe Through The Back Door) and public radio and public television shows. The question, though skeptical, was asked innocently enough, and was answered straightforwardly. But, it has now become a sarcastic catchphrase, likely to turn up when any question of travel etiquette or logistics arises.
Anyway, I owe a lot to his France and Paris guidebooks for our choice of where to stay on this summer's trip, particularly his enthusiasm for Le Marais and Île St. Louis.
Although I don't know that I'd return to the exact same spot on a subsequent visit, I don't feel it was a bad steer, at all. It was a great location for a first and relatively short visit.
Having now gotten somewhat the hang of the Métro (and having tried the RER and deciding I would probably not want to make that a big part of a subsequent visit), and having gotten more than my fair share from several of the many ice cream shops around Île St. Louis, I think I'd be comfortable staying somewhere at least a little further out from the Seine, relying on the Métro to get me around.
While in general I like the approach to travel Steves advocates, I have to say I was a little disappointed to find no mention in his Paris 2016 guidebook of the Musée des Arts et Métiers which was fabulous.
Two of us spent several hours there, giving pretty much all of it a quick run-through, and then had lunch at the café just to the south, on the western point of that triangular intersection, very near the Métro entrance. Granted, science and technology museums are our jam. I guess in that regard we might be atypical of Steves's clientele?
As for other guidebooks, Fodor's 2016 France guidebook was a tremendous disappointment, leaving out as it did any mention at all of Strasbourg or of Alsace in general, which was the other major component of our trip (with a quick over-and-back across the Rhine to walk around Kehl).
My old Let's Go.
I didn't buy the 2016 Lonely Planet but did pick up a several-year-old copy from the spring Ithaca Book Sale, and found it to combine some of the humor and whimsy and opinion one gets from Steves' books, but with a more inclusive, less idiosyncratic selection of things to see and do. (Which is to say, they do include mention of Arts et Métiers).
Last but not least, I made extensive use of Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, and Open Street Map before, during, and after this trip, as I now do with all trips.
Map screenshots courtesy Open Street Map