Review for NOTRE-DAME: bright, 18th cent. 2 BR
My husband and I and our 2 adult children spent 5 days in Caroline’s flat on the Ile de la Cite on the edge of the Seine. We recommend it highly.
The flat is beautiful with a cool stone interior. The shower and toilet work well and are separate, which made it convenient and comfortable for the four of us. Doors are solid and of beautiful quality. Beds are comfortable and clean. One bedroom is up one level from the street. One is downstairs on a lower street level, so privacy is good. The kitchen and fridge were a bit smaller than expected, but we managed quite well. We very much appreciated the washer and dryer combo, the dishwasher, and the helpful house instruction manual.
Even more exciting was the location, which allowed us to walk to Notre Dame, the Latin Quarter, Rue de Sainte Michel, 2 Metro stops, the Batobus for an evening boat ride, the Louvre, the Tuileries, and the Luxembourg Gardens. Further, but still walkable, were the Arc de Triomphe, the Invalides, Champs Elysee. We walked everywhere except for the Eiffel Tower and Versailles. It is fantastic being in the 4th arrondissement! Little shops with scarves abound. Grocery stores can be tricky to find, but there is one small one around the corner and several bigger ones a few blocks away on Rue Sainte Michel. We had breakfast in the flat each morning, making coffee in the full size coffee maker or espresso in the espresso machine, cooking eggs, and eating cereal and fruit and patisseries from the nearby bakery. We cooked 1 supper in the flat. We also frequented the nearby Cave a Vin to buy inexpensive but excellent wine. The area is safe and clean, and there was no construction anywhere near at the time we were there.
Caroline and Jean left us a raspberry cheesecake in the fridge and allowed us to check in early as soon as we arrived in Paris, thanks to their friend Chantal. They were extremely accommodating, especially as we contacted them only 2 weeks in advance due to the unexpected cancellation, by the host, of a flat in the 16th Arrondissement, which we had booked months in advance. I missed this one in my early Airbnb searches because I filtered 2 bathrooms, and this has one, but this is a gem, and the single toilet was no problem whatsoever for us. Caroline’s flat, because of its many excellent reviews and its proximity to everything, turned out to be much better for us than the one we had originally booked. This is truly a lovely area and we would stay here again for sure.