This was our first time using AirBNB. We stayed in this apartment for six nights, over New Year’s 2014. It was wonderful! The apartment is cozy, charming, comfortable, clean, quiet and well-located. I was worried about it being cold in a drafty old place, but it was fine, and you can control the heat if you get hot or cold. The bathroom and kitchen and pretty newly renovated, and there is a good shower with plenty of hot water. The owner, Monique, is Australian and we’re American so the communication was easy. She was in Australia during our visit but the check- in and check-out couldn’t have been easier, and she left a number of a friend in case we had any problems (we didn’t) and also e-mailed once during our stay to check on us. The kitchen is well-enough stocked that you can cook full meals, as we did once. I like that the place is on the top (sixth) floor; there are windows in all three rooms (kitchen, living room, bedroom) which face the courtyard and look out over the rooftops and chimneys. Way off in the distance you can see the dome of the Parthenon and the Montparnesse Tower (at least, we concluded that’s what we were seeing). It’s nice to get up in the morning and have something to look out on; even if it is just rooftops, you definitely get the feel of being in old Paris. The location: there’s one metro line a very short walk away, and then the Place de la République is just a slightly longer walk and has a bunch of lines. There are plenty of bakeries, cafés, restaurants and bars in close walking distance. The Picasso Museum and Pompidou Center are a close walk, as are some lesser-known museums. You can take a longer walk and be at the river and Notre Dame, etc. We walked more than we took the metro. Finally, as a bonus there was a bottle of champagne in the fridge; we debated about whether this was intended for guests, but decided it probably was, esp. given it was New Year’s Eve. (Hope we weren’t wrong about that)! As another bonus, Monique has a lot of books around (mostly English), including a guidebook on Paris which turned out to be extremely helpful, since I’d forgotten to bring mine and I love having a good guidebook.

All in all, I would definitely stay here again if I went back to Paris and it were available.