A couple of friends and I had the chance to stay at Marie´s apartment at the beginning of August for 10 days. The apartment was great and the building is gorgeous. Our balcony looked over the Luxembourg Gardens.

It is centrally located and easily allows access to public transportation (metro, RER, bus). There are many tourist spots you can easily walk to (Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, Ile Saint-Louis, etc.) while others you would definitely need to use public transportation for. We had a supermarket around the corner as well as a variety of restaurants and cafes nearby. The neighborhood is very charming and the Luxembourg Gardens are absolutely beautiful!

Marie was a wonderful host. This was our first time using Airbnb so we had a bunch of questions for her. She always answered promptly and was very patient with us. Prior to our visit, there was a small technical glitch in Airbnb´s system that erased our message thread with Marie and while Airbnb was fixing it, Marie confirmed that everything was in order and that the apartment was still reserved for us. She was very easy to contact and deal with during the whole process.

Unfortunately she wasn´t able to meet us upon arrival, but her housekeeper, Sheila, welcomed us to the apartment and showed us around. Sheila even made a point to give us her phone number, although Marie already gave it to us, just in case we needed something while Marie was away.

We were able to meet Marie and her husband a few days later and they were very sweet. Marie gave us some great advice as to what to visit on our last days in Paris and helped us plan how to get to the chateau we wanted to visit the next day, inviting us into her home as she searched the chateau´s website for access information on her computer. During our chat she shared some interesting details about the neighborhood´s history that only a local would know. She made sure that everything was going well, was very attentive and gave us instructions for checking out since she would be out of town.

All in all, we are very happy with our stay in Marie´s apartment. It truly was a home away from home for us. If we ever return to Paris this will definitely be our first pick as to where to stay. Hopefully next time we will be able to chat more with Marie and learn more about Paris from a local´s perspective!

Thanks for everything, Marie! =)