This area is where the Paris chic meets Paris cool. The shops are incredible (but bring your credit card), and the cafés, especially Café Charlot just around the corner, will let you feel like a local and are really welcoming. You can walk to several metro lines in 5 minutes, and as you're in the Marais, you're just around the corner from the Pompidou Center, and an enjoyable stroll from the Rue de Rivoli, the Seine and Notre Dame.

The studio apartment is inside a typically Parisian courtyard, behind a beautiful crimson wooden door. The studio itself is clean and stylishly decorated, with partially-bared stone walls and natural colours. The bathroom is clean and modern, and the shower is excellent (a rarity in my Parisian experience). With regard to ease of arrival and departure, Celine was incredibly accommodating and flexible; it was much easier than a hotel, and Celine was quick to respond to any questions or requests.

The reason I have given four stars not five, is that this is a studio apartment with a sofa bed, and because of that it comes with the inevitable compromise on space and the mattress is not as hard as I would like. But don't let that put you off...

If you're staying in Paris, and want to enjoy it as a Parisian, then for this price, you can't do better that to stay here. Enjoy, but don't forget to come home again :)

[p.s. I lived in Paris for a year, and have stayed in many different parts of Paris over the last 10 years.]