This place is full of character and in an amazing location! Walk five or ten minutes to any of several metro lines and buses, a short walk to the Marais, Belleville or the center of Paris. Charming neighborhood stores and cafes surround the apartment. Adjacent to a school means most of your neighbors are silent at night (but you get the school bell during school days).
Pretend you have an intellectual Parisian cousin. A wall of DVD's with sections dedicated to Central Asian films, silent movies, and the likes. A wonderful (almost exclusively French) library of scholarship on so many topics from art history to french identity to modern philosophy. A wonderful self-cleaning coffee maker that grinds the beans and makes your espresso with a touch of a button. Wooden floors. An amazingly firm and comfortable futon as well as a softer mattress on the other bed to suit your preferences. The host is charming and friendly.
But, if your imaginary cousin was real, he might not have the same definition of cleanliness as you do. Unfortunately, we found bits of broken glass on the floor of multiple rooms, hair in the bathroom, dust and stickiness on multiple surfaces (including the floors) and bits of food stuck to the (supposedly clean) dishes.
The apartment has the romance of wood stove. Perhaps we simply weren’t shown how to close the flue, but we couldn’t find a way to ensure we didn’t share the neighbors smoke whenever they chose to have a fire. Adding to the smells was a stove vent whose filter apparently hadn’t been washed/changed in too long.
There were some communication issues – perhaps all truly mishaps – but it turned out the clothes dryer didn’t work (an essential detail when travelling with a toddler), the staircase was undergoing renovation (we were informed a week before that there was silent painting – but it wasn’t just silent painting and even wet paint is problematic if navigating a narrow staircase with bags and a toddler - plus it meant the promised space to store a stroller wasn't available as the painters were using it), and we were lead to believe there would be an alternate bed arrangement set up for us (with two beds in one room). These all could have been well-intended mishaps and miscommunications, but each of them took something away from our trip.