I don't even know where to begin...
To sum up the experience, staying in Aurélie's home was the worst part of my month long trip to France. Before reading this novel of a review and even considering this place, go to my profile for other listings I've reviewed in Paris that are *significantly* better options than this.
This experience was a mess from the very beginning. Early in my stay, I used the washing machine on a normal cycle and after the first cycle finish I found an insignificant amount of water on the floor of the kitchen (maybe a cup full). I wasn't sure where it came from but it wasn't too much so I wiped it up and continued on with my laundry. I ran the machine a second time and found a massive flood in the kitchen, the entire machine had drained onto the kitchen floor. Seven bath towels wasn't nearly enough to clean up the amount of water. I found myself cleaning for hours trying to minimize the damage the water could cause to Aurélie's wooden kitchen floors.
After contacting Aurélie to notify her of the water issue, she mentioned to me that this had "happened before" and sent someone to come take a look the next morning and collect the dirty towels. This was great except for the fact that I had to sit home all morning waiting for this person, who was over an hour late, to arrive and lost an entire half day in Paris as a result.
The repairman came and decided that the machine wasn't broken and the flood was due to me "misusing the machine." Obviously, Aurélie was well aware of the issues with her faulty washing machine since this exact problem had happened before. She didn't think to let me know that the machine could flood the entire kitchen if not used in a specific way and due to this lack of information I assumed I could use the washing machine normally—why would I assume anything else? Of course, Aurelie's floors are damaged because wood floors and water do not mesh well (especially since this isn't the first time they've been saturated with water).
After arguing with Aurélie for days on end about getting some kind of a refund for dealing with this issue, she agreed to refund me Є180 (of the nearly Є2000 I was paying to stay there).
Fast forward a bit, I was back in Paris about a week later and I remembered I had left behind a little box at the apartment which was a wrapped gift for my nephew. Not only did she rip open the gift, I arrived to her screaming at me in the street about her kitchen floors and demanding that I come upstairs to see them again. I didn't need to see the floors again, since I lived with the damage for nearly 10 days. I really felt as if I was being harassed by her and didn't know what to do other than walk away. I later received a request from Aurélie through Airbnb for Є4000 for the damage since she believes this is somehow my fault.
In summary, Aurélie's "renovated" apartment is basically falling apart at the seams. If you do choose to stay here for whatever reason, maybe save up some extra money for the requests you'll get for whatever inevitably breaks while you're there. Did I mention, her kitchen and bathroom countertops are also wood so you have to wipe those down every time you're in the kitchen or bathroom too in order to not damage them (and if you don't she'll probably charge you a couple thousand euros for that damage too).
A couple more things to note if for some reason you're still thinking hmmm, maybe I'll book Aurélie's place:
Aurélie's apartment is clean for the most part but the odor in the apartment is unbearable. This is a smoking apartment and that is immediately obvious when you walk in the door. This would be fine but the odor seeps into absolutely everything you own. That smell traveled with me to Switzerland, back to France, and then to New York. When I got home, I had to wash all of my things at least twice to get rid of the smell.
The apartment is close the Metro, making it easy to get around Paris, but the immediate area is pretty undesirable. If you're looking to stay in the 11th, it's best to stay more in the middle of the arrondissement as this is at least a 20 minute walk from all the great restaurants, bars, and shops in the area.
You'll be staying on the 7th floor of a metal-roofed building with no A/C, let alone a single fan. Do not try and come in the summer, the heat makes the apartment unlivable even with the windows open. I actually left one night and paid to stay in a hotel on top of what I was already paying to stay at Aurélie’s place.
The wifi is fine when it works, but you have to manually reset it every few hours as well which is pretty annoying especially when trying to work from home.
In summary, don’t waste your time or money staying here. There are plenty of great Airbnbs in Paris, and this isn’t one of them.