It was a blessing to be in Maria & Elena's place! Elena was very accommodating as we struggled with the timing of our arrival, fighting through Parisian rush-hour traffic. The location is fabulous--across the street from the Seine River, where you can walk along in the evening with everybody hanging out and with the new Paris Beach with sand and beach chairs and umbrellas! It is one block from shops with wonderful fresh fruit, creperies, bakeries, whatever you want. It is 3 blocks from a Metro Station, ten-minute walk to Notre Dame--we loved it. The room itself was great, with the old stone, the facilities were all fine. The bed is a hide-a-bed, but comfortable. We felt completely lucky to be there, and the region felt like home after our 2 days there!
They had a pile of local information available, though most of it was in French. The security made us feel safe, we liked being on the ground floor without 4 or 5 floors to climb every time in and out. The fireplace, over 200 years old, was just an amazing thing to see and treasure.
Paris itself was just a very special place. The first night we went on a river cruise right at dusk, got an orientation to the highlights of Paris, then got to see the Eiffel Tower "twinkle" right at 10 pm. You just can't get a better beginning to a stay in Paris! We quickly figured out the metro system, though it was disconcerting to have certain lines not operating once you got to the station ready to board. The ticket people could speak enough English to us to help us with whatever we needed.
The museums are of course fantastic, especially for art lovers. But we also did the sewer museum, and the Army museum next to Napoleon's Tomb, and our non-art-loving college sons were more than satisfied!
But everyone probably enjoyed the leisurely walks and dinners right next to where we were staying, using Maria & Elena's place as home base and feeling like you were a part of downtown Paris, due to the superb location.
We were lucky to find parking right down the street, and once we learned how to operate the pay meter, we were able to handle that completely. The streets are narrow, and many one-way streets, so we quickly decided that we would just park the car and use the Metro to go everywhere, and that worked perfectly. Five-minute walk to the Metro over the bridge, and we were on our way. With usually no more than one transfer, and a train coming every 4 or 5 minutes, we quickly admired the system and wondered why there isn't one in our home region (southern California)!
So to summarize--we loved the place, and the location, and were sorry to spend our last night walking in the moonlight down the side of the River, eating our last crepe and gelato in the heart of downtown Paris! Bonjour! Merci!