I really wanted to love this apartment. It looked incredible online. We booked for a month - my lifelong dream to celebrate a milestone birthday in Paris. It is advertised as "luxury" but it is far from that. It is a Haussmann building with beautiful high ceilings and gorgeous moldings, a lovely marble fireplace and large windows, but the overall interior is pretty rough and the area, itself, is pretty gritty.
The furniture (beds, sofa, chairs) are incredibly uncomfortable and worn out. Might be fine if you're younger and aren't concerned with things like that, but for older folks like
us, this can create lots of back issues. There is a lack of lighting - only a few Ikea lamps, and we had to contact the house manager upon arrival due to no lighting (burned out bulb and no spares in the apartment) in the dining room. The living room rug and chairs were filthy (throws were over the chairs but were also dirty) and the throw pillows smelled horrible with years of accumulated dirt and sweat.
I would recommend the owner hire a new cleaning company as the bathroom floors and toilets were extremely dirty and some of the dishes and silverware in the cupboards had food residue on them. We found mouse droppings around the apartment. The shower also backed up with water but the house manger, Nicolas, responded quickly and fixed that for us. The bedroom's closet door kept falling off the track or jamming so we had to locate a tool box to fix that.
We were excited about having a washer/dryer but upon after many YouTube videos later trying to troubleshoot how to use a French dryer, we texted the woman who let us into the apartment and were told the dryer was broken. That would have been good info to have before check-in. We had to dry our clothes on the radiators. As we were there for a month with a broken dryer,
we were hoping there would be a linen service providing towels and sheets to us regularly. We had to ask Nicolas for this and received 1 delivery. No one picked up the used linens, however, and they just piled
up in a corner.
This apartment is located on a square that has very loud bars below. The windows block out the noise very well when closed, but if you want fresh air you'll have to contend with a lively party every night and cigarette and pot smoke wafting up. The square is also very grungy but didn't feel unsafe. There are tons of restaurants and a few small markets around the area so lots of options for food. There is a small, very active child living in the apartment above who is quite noisy starting very early in the morning so don't plan on sleeping in or having a quiet place to work. Note that the elevator is located on the 1st floor. For us Americans... that is the 2nd floor! You still have to schlep your luggage up 1 windy stairwell.
The upside of this apartment is that it is quite affordable compared
to other Paris apartments. We also received a 10% discount for booking for a month. There are 2 bedrooms so if you're a family on a budget and don't mind the aforementioned, it is a rockin' deal. It is centrally located and walkable to many of the usual tourist sights. Also, the house manager, Nicolas, is very kind and responsive to any concerns.