We had a great stay in Bertrand’s apartment. We found the location to be excellent - both for its own sake (we spent the best part of two days exploring Montmartre, even returning later one evening to the area of Sacre-Coeur to view the Eiffel Tower twinkling on the hour, wi try a takeaway crepe and hot chocolate in hand, before strolling back to the apartment in the late evening, and the children have declared Montmartre their favourite part of Paris!), as well as as a base from which to explore the rest of Paris. We used the Metro and trams, and it was all extremely easy. We made use of two of Bertrand’s local dining recommendations, which were great hits with the children (age 7 and 11) - Patakrep (delicious crepes, lovely staff and ambience) and the pizzeria, il Brigante.
The apartment was very clean and comfortable, and we found the arrangement whereby guests are requested to phone Bertrand on arrival very reassuring and helpful - he was very accommodating, as we wanted to put our younger child in a different bed from the one he had prepared. On a practical note, if travelling with children, the fun car bed is not really an option for them to sleep in if you wish to use the kitchen, where it is situated, after they have gone to bed, and in fact the fact there are light wells from the ground floor (kitchen and round bed room) down to the floor below (other bedroom, where our children slept), necessary to allow light down to the basement level by day, means that any light we had on at night or in the morning in the kitchen or our bedroom disturbed our children’s sleep. As we had long days out, and late nights for all, this wasn’t too much of a problem, but something to bear in mind if you plan to put the children to bed and stay up a bit longer yourself. Another small practical note, the phone box loo is fun, but our 7 year old struggled to open the heavy, sprung door by himself.
Nothing to spoil our enjoyment of our stay though - we felt safe, and were always happy to return to our base at the end of a wonderful day in Paris. I highly recommend making use of Bertrand’s Paris guides (Paris in 3 days, Paris with kids etc.) on his website, as we got a lot of really good info from them (even managed to take advantage of the tip about riding in the empty driver’s cab on lines 1 and 14, which the children loved!). Oh and final note, lots of really good supermarkets and bakeries/patisseries very close to the apartment, so you’ll be able to get anything you need once you’ve dropped off your bags.
A great stay 😊