I really wanted to give a much better review especially after the amazing reviews from others, but I just couldn’t. First, the place was extremely small. I expected it to be smallish, judging by previous feedback (and I don’t mind small places) but small took it to a whole other level. There were lots of mirrors in the place so the pictures on Airbnb made it look much bigger than it actually was. I came to Paris to work and even the work desk was so small that it wouldn’t really fit my laptop without my wrists dangling out in air - no place to rest them. This place was really not an apartment, but more like a suite with a room divider to separate the sleeping space. The divider was from glass and the people across the courtyard could look straight into the apartment at night with the lights on, straight into the living room, bedroom, and even into the bathroom as there was no curtain or any other window coverings blocking the view from the outside. So privacy was severely lacking. In the evening, there was bright orange light shining directly into the apartment / bedroom from the courtyard so the place never got dark. I tend to sleep with a light on so this wasn’t terrible but good luck trying to sleep if you are used to darkness. The place was also extremely noisy as the apartment was on the bottom floor right next to the building foyer. People at all hours of the night would come and go and uninterrupted sleep was impossible. There was loud construction on the other side of the court yard during the day which of course was not the owners fault, but made working (I have many Zoom meetings during the day) almost impossible. I had to keep the windows closed even with the weather being very hot. I sent the owner a message but he never responded to me; only after checking out did I receive a reply.
Then the shower. After the first day the water stopped draining. Not a low draining shower but full standing water. I tried to fix it myself as I didn’t want to wait and flood the shower. I took chopsticks and unclogged the drain - a huge blob of long black hair was in the drain- it was quite gross actually. There was also no place in the shower to put my shampoo or shower gel, no shelf or hanging basket; I had to place everything on the floor, including my bar of soap. There was a mini, travel type version, hairdryer that would take hours to dry your hair with if you have long hair - I have short hair so I made it work.
The “bedroom,” if you can call it that, was very small with little room on each side of the bed. The matras was well worn and not very comfortable with two lumpy pillows and very wrinkled sheets - not a huge deal but no effort was put into making the place inviting enough to sleep in.
My last comment is about the lack of supplies. There was half a roll of toilet paper (not ok for a week’s stay), so I had to go find a grocery store on my first evening there to buy more. I would also have expected some other basic supplies such as coffee, tea, sugar and salt (there was a salt shaker but it was empty). I have stayed in several Airbnb’s and at a minimum there was always coffee and tea. There was a single size French press but no supplies. While the place was nothing but disappointing, the neighborhood was amazing. Lots of little coffee shops and restaurants and convenient to the Metro. While I will definitely come back to this neighborhood, I would not stay at this place again. I’m sorry that I couldn’t be more complimentary.