we opted to rent an apartment in paris during our stay for a few reasons. there were six of us, and it seemed like a better option than getting two or three hotel rooms, where there’s no common area for people to relax together in the mornings before everyone’s up, at night before bed, or during the day between activities. we were in paris for seven nights, so we felt like staying in an apartment would save us some money [although i’ve heard that apartments vs. hotels are debatable in paris in terms of cost, depending on the situation]. we also liked the idea of eating breakfast at home to save money that way, or maybe having hors d’oeuvres and a glass of wine at home before going out for dinner [which we did most evenings]. it’s nice to have a big fridge and a coffeemaker and other amenities that make you feel at home instead of in travel mode.
our group generally makes a conscious effort to try to “do as the locals do” most of the time [our number one rule is no eating at places that we have in the U.S.!], and staying in an apartment seems like a good way to get a true taste of living in paris, no? and finally, we had done the apartment/house rental thing several times before in various cities in the U.S. as well as in argentina and had great success and therefore consider ourselves pretty savvy at apartment hunting, even in cities we’ve never been to before. i chuckle a little at that last statement, because although our paris apartment did turn out to be just the right place for us during our stay, it…surprised us a little at first. i think you’ll understand why when you see the photos!
we found the apartment on VRBO and it looked perfect for us – a beautiful, bright, spacious, classic-looking 3-bedroom, 2-bath apartment [which seems to be a rarity in paris, at least for something even remotely in our price range to rent] in a great location, owned by a movie producer who travels a lot. and that’s exactly what it was!
however, what we didn’t catch from the photos/description was the very eclectic choice of art and decor. which was basically lots of old theater/costume stuff [kinda interesting, and creepy in some cases] and lots of naked women. everywhere. not even counting the six of us who were staying there. [haha, TOTALLY kidding on that last part.] but yeah, some of it was quite out there:
{the front hallway had some beautiful stained glass windows and looked normal enough… minus the old pope outfit? king outfit? in the corner}
{the kitchen…}
{…and its interesting art.}
{there was a tiny hidden bathroom off the kitchen, which for some reason sort of bothered me until i realized how happy i was to have that second bathroom for the six of us! oh, the little things we take for granted, like not having to share bathrooms – at all, much less sharing them with five or more others… also, the walls of the bathroom really were this color.}
{the light switch in the bathroom… i thought it was funny so i had to take a picture!}
{the back of the bathroom door was covered in astroturf and had this porcelain painted knob. bizarre decorating, i tell you.}
{the living room was pretty normal-looking…}
{…minus these legs by the fireplace…}
{…and some of the mantle decorations.}
{there was also this TV which we never could get to work [that’s what we get for leaving the guys at home!], although who needs a TV when you’re in paris? the only reason we even discovered that we didn’t know how to work it was because we were hoping to watch the U.S.A. game the last night we were in paris. that’s what we get for not experiencing the culture out at a pub watching it, i suppose. luckily we had plenty of other opportunities to do so! and there’s also a soccer ball, because it would be a sin not to have one lying around in an apartment in europe, apparently.}
{in one of the bedrooms}
{another interesting piece of art}
{the library was by far the most creepy room… luckily no one had to sleep in there!}
other than that, there were some other quirks about the place that weren’t really desirable but also weren’t deal-breakers… the biggest and most annoying one being the old plumbing of the place, which meant that you couldn’t flush paper so… i won’t go into any more details than that. the apartment was also on the third floor, which is the fourth floor to american standards, and those dark, winding wood steps were about as steep and narrow as they come. no elevator. some days we walked 11 miles total, my little 78-year-old grandmother included, and she still had to climb up all those steps just to get in for the night. and she did it like a trooper – and very carefully. i’m actually surprised and thankful that none of us took a tumble down them because that could have been really bad and also wouldn’t have been that hard to do. each time we made it to the top of the stairs, we were huffing and puffing and our calves were burning, but at least we knew we were working off all the croissants and crepes we ate. :)
and of course, with the apartment being old, it was slightly shabby, but nothing major. some dusty pieces of furniture, temperamental faucets, tiny sinks, that sort of thing. but other than that, it really was a wonderful place for us. i couldn’t get over the old wooden floors and the tall, gorgeous french windows and white pull-back curtains.
{isn’t this perfect?}
and the location couldn’t be beat. we were in the district le marais near the centre pompidou. the neighborhood was lively and fun. it was a little noisy on the world cup game nights since we kept the windows open at night, but we didn’t mind – we kinda liked it, in fact, because we could hear and see a lot that was going on down below, and when it was time to go to bed, we were all so tired that we fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. we could get to the places that we wanted to go very easily either by walking or getting on the metro at one of the nearby stations, and we had our own little tower next to our apartment to help us locate it from far away when we were lost:
yep, it turned out to be a pretty awesome place. we had a good laugh about some of its quirks, but i think we’d all look back fondly on the apartment and the memories that we made there. what fun it was! mimi, thank you so much for the wonderful adventure. more paris pictures to come!