Pros and cons to this one -
Pros
1. The apartment is located in a scenic and residential area with excellent links to public transport - taxi and bus at doorstep, subway a 2 minute walk away. Supermarket round the corner and lots of lovely restaurants to eat at. The area is quiet at night but not completely abandoned or desolate either because of the restaurants around.
2. Communication - smooth and effective with Veronique. She was not in Paris the days we were but she sent a friend to let us in and when we left. Special mention to the friend who sweetly also came to unlock our apartment when we accidentally locked ourselves out!
Cons
1. The apartment is definitely beautiful but has seen better days. The walls are peeling in many places and the linens and towers are very outdated and worn out. There were stray hair on the pillow and I just didn't get the feeling that the linens were as clean as they could be.
2. Toilet rolls, garbage bags etc were not enough.
3. Musty odours in the building and from the carpets, the apartment definitely needs to be aired out properly.
4. Veronique's friend also came when we checked out to leave and I just assumed it was for the keys. It turned out to be a complete checking of the apartment, the drawers, the bathroom (I was actually changing in the bathroom when she came in!). This is possibly for their security and ours (lost items etc) but it felt terribly intrusive and definitely needs to be handled better. As seasoned travellers, this has never happened to us before and we found it highly disconcerting and off-putting.
Veronique and the friend were both very sweet and it's entirely possible that the cleaning crew isn't doing as good a job as they think they are so maybe just lack of oversight is the problem.