The apt was as pictured and described and was cute and efficient. The location was great, lots of close by restaurants and the metro was across the street. The "garden courtyard" was full of scaffolding, metal bits and other paint and building supplies, it was not a pleasant place to gather as older reviews have indicated...there would have been nowhere to put a chair, much less a table.
However, a major problem we had was with communication and with the building key/lock. On our 1st day, when we returned to the apartment for the 1st time, we were not able to open the lock on the building door. We spent 30 minutes trying to turn both sets of keys provided to us and then, around 8:30pm called Marga's 'friend' and helper, Pablo,(does Marga even exist?), and left a message that we were locked out. WE GOT NO RESPONSE, not that night or the next day. No one was coming or going who could have let us in.
After sitting outside in the dark, as the courtyard was not well lit and it was getting cold, we resorted to buzzing neighbors' bells until someone finally buzzed us in. Once in the apartment, as directed in the black instruction note book, we again called Pablo, from the house phone and left another detailed message, with our cells numbers as well, reiterating the problem and explainimg that we had tickets for Versailles the next day, and would be returning in the afternoon and needed a new key that would work. Several hours later I received a text from Pablo telling me to "try the key again because it had worked for the last renters. %$&(×!
I responded back, now for the 3rd time, detailing our experience the night before and conveyed that we would inform him when we were one hour away so he could meet us at the building to give us a new key. He continued to argue with me back and forth via text about how the key worked fine, insinuating that my adult son and I, after a combined almost 80 years on earth, did not know how to use keys.
I continued to request a new key. He finally said it was not convenient for him to bring a key that day- we were only staying 3 full days, and he would "see" if he could get a friend of his to come by and give us a new key, but couldnt confirm when.
I kept him aware of our arrival time, giving him plenty of time to make arrangements and we arrived back at the apartment within 10 minutes of the time we indicated. We then waited over an hour and no one came. We left to seek refreshment elsewhere and after another hour reveived a series of texts saying this friend, now 2 removed from Marga, had left a key inside the apartment! So, once again, we had been left waiting, wasting our time in France, and then had to again disturb the neighbors by buzzing random apartments to finally be let back in.
The rude and dissmissive way we were treated really ruined any feeling of goodwill or enjoyment of the apartment.
I would not recommend staying here, we were treated badly, a good bit of our short time in Paris was wasted just trying to get back into the apartment, the courtyard was an absolute mess and the tiny fans that were available did nothing to cool or move the air at night. Celing fans and non threadbare sheets would have added considerably to the comfort of sleeping in the apartment.