Advice for Paris - Hotel, public transportation
The family (Mr/Ms p_man + 16 year old son) will be in Paris for a week in January/February. We've never been there, so I was hoping folks could help out regarding:
1) A decent hotel for three people. Rooms seem to have a single king or queen or two twins. Ms. p_man is leery of a room just for the kid, so are there any decent options for a family of three? Chain doesn't matter a ton, but we have at least minimal status at Marriott and Hyatt. (We've been through the Mercure sleep sofa travesty a couple of times in Poland, don't want to recreate that in Paris.)
2) My son will need to be just inside the southern edge of the 13th arrondissement from 9-5 on a Wednesday and Thursday, quite close to the Porte d'Ivry station. That's fine, but he'll be hauling a fencing bag (roughly equivalent to a golf bag) back and forth. Is that at all reasonable during morning/afternoon commutes? (We'll need to be in a hotel in that area by Thursday night, but wanted to spend some time in the more "Paris-y" part of town first. We could just suck it up and go down there Tuesday or Wednesday, but wanted to avoid that if possible.)
Any general advice is always helpful - hidden gems, underrated museums (WW 1 or 2 things are always interesting), anything else.... Thanks!