What is the city center of Paris?

Question

We are planning to go to Paris and want to know the normal (and not expensive) places to book a hostel or an Airbnb. I know for sure that these places won't be in the city center, but we want to know what is the center of the city to calculate the distance?

Answer 1

I believe this problem is being approached incorrectly. Maybe the "center of Paris" is the Eiffel Tower, or Notre Dame, or the Arc du Triomphe. You could poll enough people and arrive at a consensus over where most people believe the center of the city to be. You could then use a tool such as http://www.geomidpoint.com/ to find the weighted "center" of the city based on polling data. Alternatively or supplementary, you could find the mean center of population density or building density. Then what do you do? Draw a radius? Do you calculate transportation time and by what mode? Car or public transportation? Really, you should probably do none of these things.

https://www.streetpress.com/sites/default/files/carte-loyers-paris-2000px_0.png

Above is a map showing rent prices in Paris, with a noticeable reduction of price away from the area of central Paris. There is a definite correlation between rents, hotel prices (with exceptions), and therefore Airbnb prices. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. If this were a more academic exercise, some justification between rent and Airbnb prices may be in order, but for the sake of making vacation plans, no further information ought to be required.