My family and I found the location of Maissoun's place to be just about perfect. The Voltaire stop is one minute away, and Line 9 is a great metro line for getting to any of the major tourist attractions in about 30 minutes. It's a real neighbourhood with lots of reasonable restaurants, and there are great bakeries and grocery stores just out the door. A cab to the airport took 30 minutes and there's a taxi stand at traffic circle where the Metro is too (50 euros to the airport from there if you don't want to do the metro/train combo. With 3 kids, we didn't). Maissoun responded to every question I had quickly with great advice. Voltaire is a busy street and if it's hot you'll need the windows open, so if you are a light sleeper you might want ear plugs. However, it's pretty normal noise for a vibrant city and it's the price you pay for having restaurants and bakeries just down stairs. The pull out couch was great for my two kids, and in fact our third child chose to squeeze in one night instead of being in the separate child's bedroom.