Three of us stayed in Marie and Elena's apartment (two adults plus a 19-year old boy) and we all found it to be very well designed and enjoyed our stay immensely.

The apartment is comprised of two rooms - living/bed/kitchen area and a separate bathroom/toilet. The main kitchen/living area is very spacious and we all felt that we had space to move around without falling over each other. The primary sleeping area is a mattress on a platform that the main photo view of the room is taken from. This is about 8-9 feet off the floor up a permanent ladder and has about 3-4 feet of space. Our son slept up there and really enjoyed it. The large settee in the photo also opens out into a sofa bed and we found this to be very comfortable for two adults. The kitchen is very well equipped and we cooked on a number of occasions and had everything we needed to cater for ourselves. The bathroom has a bath with integrated shower and we found this to be very effective.

The apartment has more or less everything you need for your stay so much so that we ended up calling it the Room of Requirement (from Harry Potter). Elena didn't give us a detailed tour when we arrived and we kept finding new things, e.g. the dishwasher built into the bottom of the cooker, the clothes airer behind the standalone cupboard, power adaptors, extensions cables, lemon juicers, etc. Everything has been thought of! We found the washer/dryer particularly handy as well as the dehumidifier in the bathroom. Elena had also provided all the consumables we needed for our stay - bathroom items, washing powder, dishwasher tablets, etc. There really was nothing we wanted for during our stay.

The apartment is in a perfect location for exploring Paris and is near to stops for the Batobus and public transport. The main street up the centre of Ilse St. Louis is lined with various shops and restaurants as well as local ice cream, which is delicious. There is also an extensive restaurant and shopping area just across the Pont Marie heading North.

The apartment is located on the ground floor and the road outside is active during the day, but quite at night. The windows are securely barred and we slept with the windows open and had no problem with road noise until around 7.30am.

There was a problem with the TV/internet service when we arrived and Elena provided us with a backup internet service (mobile wifi dongle) until this was resolved. Also, Elena was very helpful in getting the full service back up and running via the service engineer. This isn't a complaint, but as someone who champions good customer service (including good recovery if things go wrong) I wanted to point out that I thought Elena was excellent in this area as well.