Beautiful apartment, spacious, very nice art on the walls, high ceilings.
A door separates the bedrooms from the livingroom and kitchen, great for guests who sleep and wake at different times!
Kitchen is spacious, includes a three-drawer freezer and expresso machine. Double windows in all rooms open and provide a lovely way to get fresh air.
Plenty of empty drawer and closet space for guests (and a huge walk-in closet), though the host has her family’s personal effects (clothes, suitcases, toiletries, food, toys, books) in drawers and closets throughout the apartment.
The washer and dryer work very well – the dryer is quite noisy, so can’t be run while anyone is trying to sleep. Still, a great convenience to have them both.
The beds are very comfortable –high-quality soft linens, cotton towels, down comforters. While there is no designated work/office space, we used the black table in the livingroom and it worked well.
The neighborhood is quiet, the bakery on the block is closed on Saturdays and Sundays and grocery store is closed on Sundays, but a convenience store on the street seems open all the time. It is a 4-5 block walk to the busy cafes and stores of St. Germaine. Apartment is near government buildings, so on Varenne for 5 blocks there are guards armed with rifles on every corner. You can avoid them by walking on Grenelle.
The internet was fast and reliable, but there is no wifi in the bedrooms, hallways, or bathrooms. It only works in the kitchen and livingroom.
We had a major plumbing issue while there – the shower was leaking onto the ceiling below. So, we had to use the bathtub for the last two weeks of our stay, which for us was a major inconvenience given mobility issues. The host was open to us finding another apartment, and apologized, but offered no compensation or other assistance. Further, we had several smaller plumbing issues (drain in master bathroom clogged, very slow drain in bathtub), and were disappointed that when the plumber came to diagnose the shower leak, the host had not asked him to fix these smaller, but still inconvenient problems. It took 5 full days (albeit including Saturday and Sunday) for her to find a plumber to diagnose the leak. We don’t expect 24 hour plumbing service, but waiting 5 days for one, and having a backed-up drain for 2 weeks, seems an area where there is room for improvement. You may want to check with the host to see if she has improved her access to a plumber.
On a more positive note, we had a light burn out and the very next day the host’s assistant Joy and the electrician fixed it.
Communicating with the host was easy, she always responded the same day and usually within an hour or two. This is a great place, and assuming plumber and plumbing issues are resolved, and you don’t need wifi in the bedrooms, I would highly recommend it.