If you get the opportunity to stay in this apartment, don't miss it! What a fantastic place to spend a week in Paris! The apartment is very roomy, but this review can only be 500 words long, so you’ll have to believe the description, but that’s just the start. You can’t beat the location—name a site to see in Paris; we walked to them all (in good walking shoes to Notre Dame, true, but still…); the apartment was supplied with pretty much everything you might need, and John (the host) was extraordinarily helpful. Suffice it to say that the description is true, or even a little understated.
The kitchen has lots of dishes, and there’s even a washer and dryer. John was very, very prompt with all his communications, right from the very first inquiry. He met us (even a little earlier than the published “check-in” time), gave us a great little tour of the apartment and some tips on where to go food shopping (down the street and around the corner is a wonderful neighborhood market). Throughout the week he checked in by airbnb.com to make sure that everything was going smoothly, which it was.
For the sake of information, not to distract from the apartment, here are a couple things to bear in mind. This apartment is on the first floor. Maybe if the apartment were on a busy street there might be a downside but the street is a really quiet—I mean really quiet—one-way street with a couple professional offices that clearly don’t get (or want) foot traffic. It was great for us because we spent most of our time exploring the beautiful things that Paris has to offer and no time riding elevators or climbing stairs. John did forget to mention (or I just didn’t hear him) that the recycling bin doesn’t include glass, but even that turned out to be a fun addition since the concierge saw me about to put glass into the recycle bin in the courtyard and very sweetly explained with sympathetic gestures and facial expressions (since I have no French) that “No, odd as it may seem, glass goes in the trash. Plastic goes in the recycle, but not glass”. Like lots of apartments in Europe one of the two “bathrooms” doesn’t have a toilet, just a shower, but what a shower! Very nicely designed. The second toilet is on its own, centrally located. In other words, there is one “full bath”, and then a shower room (with sink and mirror and heated towel rack) and then a separate toilet room.
So, to summarize, this apartment is spectacular! I kept saying over and over the whole week, “What an amazing apartment!” And I wasn’t the only one in our party saying that. Hopefully John will keep offering it on airbnb.com because I may have to visit Paris more often.