During our visit to Paris, we rented an apartment. This is the first time I have done an apartment rental, and it worked out very well. The apartment is located in the 5th Arrondissement on the rue Rollin, very close to the lively rue Mouffetard and the Place de la Contrescarpe. It is a couple of hundred feet from the first apartment which Ernest Hemingway had in Paris from January 1922 until August 1923. (Hemingway’s experiences in the area are described in “A Moveable Feast.”)
Details on the apartment are at http://www.vrbo.com/181279
The apartment is close to two subway stations - Cardinal Lemoine on Line 10 and Place Monge on Line 7. The Paris subway system is so great that it is easy to get to any destination from these stations.
There are at least two very nice bakeries close to each of the subway stations. We bought breakfast pastries at one of these bakeries each day. The pastries were fantastic and cost between €1.10 and €2.50.
Boulangerie La Parisienne
Took 2nd Place in the 2010 Paris Baguette Grand Prix
At Cardinal Lemoine Station
There are also a number of decent restaurants, cafes, bistros, take-out places, and a great gelato store on the rue Mouffetard and place de la Contrescarpe. Most have outdoor tables. For those desperate for American food, Katz’s American diner, with Kosher options, is only a couple of blocks away. There are a couple of supermarkets - a nice Carrefour supermarket and another small “supermarket.” There is a third supermarket, Franprix, just a bit further.
Place de la Contrescarpe
Delmas Restaurant on Place de la Contrescarpe
The apartment itself is owned by an American who lives in the U.S., but visits France with her family. Consequently, it has lots of American and French amenities, including:
- A nice stove and microwave
- refrigerator
- washer and dryer
- nice bathroom with separate shower and bath
- large screen TV with lots of channels, including CNN and other English-Language channels
- DVD & CD player
- secure wireless
- master bath with king bed
- living room with convertible couch bed that’s a real bed
- iron
- rental includes supplies towels, linens, dishes, silverware, etc. It also includes some supplies like toilet paper and soap, but these may not be adequate and may have to be supplemented by supermarket purchases. That was the case for us, but these items are very cheap at the Carrefour supermarket.
- lots of electrical outlets
- a gift basket including wine and snacks
- a local apartment hostess who can provide advice and assistance when needed.
- A nice supply of tourist pamphlets and books
- Children’s books
There were a couple of downsides:
A. I had to pay cash up front on arrival. The most common ways to do this would be to:
1. convert a lot of money at the airport,
2. bring travelers checks
3. get Euros from a U.S. bank or currency exchange service.
I like none of those options because the Euros are much more expensive with all of those options. I normally use ATM machines to get my Euros. However, most ATM cards have too low a daily withdrawal limit to withdraw enough money. I got around the problem by bringing ATM cards from four different accounts, but I was not happy doing that. I wish the owner would have another option like paying into a French PayPal account.
B. Another problem that might affect a few people with difficulty manipulating steps is that there are 26 steps from the courtyard up to the apartment. I know that this would be too difficult for my wife.
- One problem we had is that the humidity in the bathroom was so high that towels did not dry, so we had to use the dryer to dry them.
- The walls are thin and one can hear noise off the street and in the complex. This did not happen often enough to be a bother.
The rate varies by season. I paid 1,370 Euros (nearly $2,000) for 8 nights. That is significantly less than the 260 Euros per night our son’s family paid to accommodate the four of them when we traveled to Paris in 2006.
The bottom line is that my grandchildren and I were very happy with the apartment.
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