STAY AWAY.
The location (neighborhood, city, restaurants) is perfect, everything else was the opposite.
During the booking process, Emma was incredibly rude (and far beyond the stereotype of Parisiens - we generally found Parisiens to be quite amiable once the language barrier was overcome). When booking, the Airbnb app did not forward notifications (either to email or via the little red numbers common to phone applications) and the host accused us of (1) checking our messages and (2) intentionally ignoring them. Obviously not a great way to start a 2.5 week relationship.
Direct (copy/paste) quote: " i am sure you connected to airbnb again withen the 24 hours after sending your request, at least to check if i accepted your request"
Upon arrival, we were checked in to an apartment that was *not* the one we had booked, because the guests who had been staying in our-actual-apartment decided extend.
So, Emma asked us for a favor, namely, to move into not-our-apartment so that the previous Airbnb-ers of our-actual-apartment wouldn't have to move after their extension (with a baby, who could be mean to a baby?!) We would have to move apartments once during the trip, but the apartments were in the same building. Because of this same-building-ness and the baby, we agreed.
Again, copy/paste:
"The apartment you are booked in now is rented to a couple with a baby who will be staying longer so they will move tomorrow to a bigger apartment i have in the same building, also liosted on airbnb but before mouvi=ing them tonmorrow, i was wondering if you would be interested in having the bigger apartment? the only problem is that is not available till the 29th, booked from the 22nd but i still have the smaller one booked for you till the 29th so incase you take the bigger one, you will just need to move one floor up on the 22nd"
This first not-our-apartment had visible mold; we have pictures. We also saw both mice and cockroaches in the kitchen of that apartment, and the cabinet in the kitchen had a precarious gap between it and the wall at the top of where it should have been flush.
From there, Emma couldn't stick to any of the plans she laid out, because we took a brief (work) trip to London during the first week of our stay, and next thing we knew we were being asked to move on the 20th, not the 22nd. This would have been a minor annoyance, given that we would, in fact, be back in Paris on the 20th. However, there was evidently some sort of misunderstanding on her part, because when we informed her we were back in the apartment, we received this:
"But i thought you said your train arrive at 1pm. So I programmed according to what you said and there is heavy trafic now in your area. Just checked. So wont be able to come my side till later this afternoon or evening"
Except that in the afternoon and evening, we had work (including but not limited to meetings) and would not be available to move. We attempted to relay this to Emma, however she wasn't having it, and she demanded that we move - even coming to the apartment while I was there alone. She additionally accused me of not reading her messages (when, in fact, the original move date was the 22nd, see above)
"it was yesterday, the 19th when you were normaly moving, please ready our messages, but you were not here and got disturbed when contacted you, "
Now, my boyfriend is not the type to wander around a foreign city without at least some semblance of a place to call home, so when he left for the office he took one of the keys (for the first apartment) with him. This unhinged Emma upon arrival, because in her mind this is such an unreasonable thing to do that we were now untrustworthy.
The final cherry-on-top-of-a-s**t-sundae was that, while I was home alone - in a foreign city, the phone started ringing and someone started pounding on the door of the apartment. This was, of course, Emma:
"Yes in rue building not in the apartment and called you but you did not a swer so wrang the door cuz have soething urgent to tell you and came few minutes sho but you were not home yet. Can you please open ?"
What was this urgent matter? A two-day-old complaint that someone could overhear my boyfriend on the phone - through the paper thin walls, after we had been advertised that this was a place one could do work.