Picking th eright neighbourhood

I don't quite understand - the only place la rue La Fayette gets close to Canal St-Martin is towards métros Louis Blanc and Jaurès, in the northeast corner of the 10th arrondissement, nowhere near the Opera, and not particularly close to any well-known attractions, except the Canal itself. Could you give us a clearer idea of where the apartment is? (La Fayette is a long street, on a southwest/northeast angle, through the 9th and 10th arrondissements). At its southwestern end, it is indeed close to Opéra. Everywhere, it is a long way from Pigalle. Actually, that area isn't nearly as "hot" as it used to be - I think a lot of the sex trade, except for shows for coachloads of tourists, has moved onto the Internet and other vehicles. In any case it is easy to stay away from that little stretch of Pigalle, at the northern limit of the 9th-southern of the 18th.

I suspect where you are staying will be fine.

But pâtisseries are fattening! ;-).

I agree with lagatta, Rue Lafayette is a rather elegant street, lined with Hausmannian building and far from any "hot" neighbourhoods.
Pigalle is no more what is used to be and the "sex" district streches only along a small part of Boulevard de Clichy. Pigalle area is unfairly avoided by many foreign tourist though it's very pleasant and quaint as long as you leave behind you the seedy boulevard.

As for patisseries, they spread all over the city!! Don't worry about that.

Bon voyage

Thanks lagatta, that's great feed-back.

This apartment is apparently next to Canal St Martin and walking distance to Sacre Coeur and Moulin Rouge. Is that the area you had in mind when you thought this area was nice?

Thanks again

#3, perhaps you should look at a map of Paris. Where Lafayette and St Martin cross is at least a 30min walk from either Moulin Rouge or S Coeur. That's a bit fo a stretch for the term 'walking distance'.
If you want to avoid sex shops then you should avoid walking to Moulin Rouge- the whole street there is full fo them. I find it a very sleazy part fo Paris that I try to avoid- not because it is so dangerous but because it is just so pitiful.

I don;t know the area too well but you are not far from Gare du Nord- the area just behind the Gare has a large concentration of Indian stores- good place to get a dosai and a thali... not very French though.

No, I said the area was "fine" (for a family) as in not dodgy or dodgy-seeming. Rue La Fayette is too long to know what they would be close to without an address or cross-street.

I'd have no desire on earth to see Sacré-Coeur - it is one of those hideous late 19th-Century gaudy-Romano-Byzantine mishmash monstrosities (we have a more recent example, St-Joseph's Oratory - I have friends who could actually see part of it out their window, but it was not on purpose by any means. It also had an outright reactionary political agenda - "to expiate the crimes of the Communards" so it is no surprise that an anarchist hid under the rafters to shout out "vive le diable" upon its inauguration.

There are so many beautiful and historically important churches - and other places of worship - in and around Paris that I believe in Sacré-Coeur avoidance...

The view FROM Sacré-Coeur is nice though.

Moulin Rouge is in Pigalle; of course there are sex-shops and sleaze around there, but the quantities and boldness of the sleaze are in no way comparable to hot neighbourhoods in Amsterdam or Hamburg. It is kind of sad, but full of tourist coaches - I've walked through that area many times, as I was staying at La Fourche norht of Clichy and heading towards Barbès in search of North and West African stuff. The only real risk along all that stretch is pickpockets, simply because there are crowds, but by the same token the crowds prevent more serious crime.

MTL, you are thinking of passage Brady - and thereabouts. Indeed a large concentration of South Asian shops and restaurants, but the passages couverts are very typically Parisian indeed - Walter Benjamin and the surrealists wrote quite a lot about them.

Lagatta, I am NOT thinking about Passage Brady- I said BEHIND the Gare du nord. - the area between Mo La Chapelle, and Gare du nord, including Rue Faubourg St Denis and Rue Louis (which crosses Rue LaFayette) and Rue Perdonnet. This is the heart of Paris's Tamil community. Nothing to do with the passages.

Just as a suggestion for another nice base, I stayed in the Marais, which was very quiet and safe. I stayed in the MIJE hostel, not sure what other kinds of accomodations are available in the area. But it was nice because it was a short walk to Notre Dame, and the Ile-St.-Louis, where there are lots of bakeries & restaurants. There didn't seem to be alot of night-life where we stayed, it was pretty quiet, which I liked, and I never saw/heard anything that made me feel uncomfortable aside from a few intoxicated people on New Year's Eve. It's also walking distance from the Latin Quarter, which is fun.