My husband and I have been visiting Paris for the past 30 years. On all but the first trip we have stayed in different apartments in the Marais. When we started staying in the Marais it was an up and coming and trendy neighbourhood. Not so much any more. Although the area is still very attractive it has become a little staid and touristic for us. It is for this reason that we decided on this visit to move to the newly hip and not so touristy Canal St. Martin area with its many excellent restaurants, bakeries, bars and boutiques. It was a great decision. We loved the area and it will be our go to place in the future.

Jeanne's apartment was just around the corner from the Canal St. Martin in a perfect location, within a short walk from three metro stations and across the street from one of the best bakeries in Paris. A small supermarket was a couple of doors down from the apartment and a great cheese shop was within a two minute walk.

When we arrived we were met by Jeanne's brother Clement and given a run down of this very spacious ( by Parisien standards) apartment. The apartment was filled with light and air from the many large windows throughout. It was well equipped and the beds were extremely comfortable. The welcoming bottle of wine that Jeanne left for us was much appreciated. A number of members of Jeanne's family are artists and the apartment was nicely decorated with their artwork (as well as some more eclectic pieces). We really felt that we were in the middle of a real Parisien neighbourhood in a real Parisien home ( which we in fact were).

Before we arrived Jeanne was extremely responsive to our requests. She had no problem letting us check in at 10:00 am when we flew in from Canada and made reservations for us at two of the most difficult restaurants to get into in Paris. Every question that I asked of her was promptly answered.

We really enjoyed our eight night stay at Jeanne's apartment and would definitely return. However, people need to be aware that the apartment is on the fourth floor and there is no elevator in the building. Also, the fact that the apartment is in a very busy and lively neighbourhood does have both an upside and a downside. We loved the ongoing buzz from the street and the fact that in the evening the canal is lined by hundreds of young people congregating for picnics along its banks. The downside was that on the warm weekend evenings that we were there the noise from these hundreds of young people continued until the early hours of the morning making it a little difficult to have a good sleep in the street facing bedroom with the windows open. However, as I previously said we would definitely stay at the apartment again notwithstanding the stairs or the weekend noise.