Riva's place is very legit. I stayed at his place for one month starting the day France opened up from quarantine. Coming fresh from Southern California where everything is brand new and hi-tech, it takes a little bit of an open mind to get used to how old things are in this amazing city. Riva's friend Franck helped check me in, they know a little English, but the process is so simple that you'll get it in no time. The surrounding area looks pretty old, there's some graffiti, but there are lots of families around with children playing outside almost all day. Once you venture out of the immediate block, you have an absolutely gorgeous river to walk along. Seriously, a month on, especially coming from a paradise like SoCal, my jaw still drops at how beautiful this place is -- it is without a doubt also a paradise. You have plenty of different grocery stores and restaurants in almost every direction that you can try. They don't really use Yelp in France, so use TripAdvisor to find places you want. Riva's apartment was very clean, it's got these amazing huge windows that open up if you want to hear the birds sing or listen to the summer rain storms -- that was probably my favorite part. The bathroom is perfectly adequate. The washing machine is also a dryer -- I did have to Google the make/model of the machine and find Canadian English instructions to use it, took me about 5 minutes to learn, but after it was pretty convenient. If you don't use the dryer function, you can also hang your clothes with the rack Riva provides. My only criticism would be the internet speed, which I clocked around 3 Mbps. I work remotely and I'm normally used to Google Fiber, but at most, this was a minor inconvenience for me. All in all, I had the most wonderful time, my month flew by so fast, and I really hope your stay is as amazing as mine after having read all this. Bon voyage!