Paris Apartments
Personnal Guide to the City's Best
Page 212 - 213
The freedom afforded by your own apartment in Paris is invaluable. Comme ça, your are a part of the community, rather than a faceless number in a hotel. Apartrental has an easy-to-use website with a feature every such site should have but doesn't: the ability to search with specific dates over the entire portfolio in one go.
Bryan Lloyd: I had a few criteria to satisfy when booking accommodation in Paris. A wanted it to be comfortable, central - but not to central! - within easy reach of everything else I wanted to do, and reasonably priced. The pre-eminent consideration was space. I wanted to be able to move about without bumping into another faux antique. And I am not a great fan of hotels; I find them relatively soulless places.
The ideal solution was an apartment, and I took one in the 6th at 18 rue des Grands-Augustins.This is the street where Picasso painted Guernica and chef Jacques Cagna [Restaurant 14, rue des Grands-Augustins] established his reputation. Now, it is also home to more contemporary concerns, such as Ze Kitchen Galerie. It is an ideal spot that met all my aforementioned requirements. Its position four blocks from Notre-Dame de Paris in one direction and one-and-a-half block from the Pont Neuf in the other, gives some indication of its amenity. In comparison to a hotel of any quality in the area, it was remarkably cheap, and even more cost-effective if taken for seven days or more (dropping by approximately 85 € per nigth).
While it probably wouldn't be considered for the latest edition of Vogue, the apartment was comfortable, and there was definitely enough room to swing the proverbial cat with some enthusiasm. It included a mezzanine and open-plan living dining area with a dining table for eight, presumably you prove to be a hit with the locals. I didn't throw any extravagant dinner parties on this occasion, but the table prouved most useful for spreading out maps, etc. The kitchen and bathrooms were also separate, which was convenient. Storage was fairly good, but strangely there was an iron without ironing board - maybe the reason for the large table. It was what might be termed a traditional interior, with exposed beams and brickwork.
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