Our Apartment

27, rue Damremont

This was our first venture into renting instead of staying in a hotel. The process went easily with this company, www.frenchyrentals.com . It is the Damremont one. Payments were made by PayPal and our contact, Darrin, kept in regular touch, even sending us a Paris Pratique. They did require a €200 down security deposit which irks me. The €800 per week rental fee seemed to fit into our usual range for hotel rental.
I was a little tentative about renting an apartment, even starting a thread on the Fodors forum entitled, “Renting an apartment - Is it worth it?”
The door to the street is non-descript, blending into the anonymity of hundreds just like it. Inside the entrance door, everything was dark as we fumbled around trying to find that switch which illuminates such places for a timed period. We buzzed the apartment and Darrin, who was waiting for us at the apartment as our daughter had alerted him by email of our changed arrival time, came down to welcome us. The hallway in the building foyer was dingy and in need of a good coat of paint - surely someone had done that between 1902, the building’s inception, and now. The high ceilings do nothing to alleviate that feeling. We walked through a little courtyard and up a narrow staircase to the first floor (US second floor) apartment. Darrin fumbled with the key explaining how the lock was a little tricky. I checked behind me to see if Sandra was still here.
Inside the unit the first noticeable feature was the wood floors, dark and worn but really attractive. The entry hall has three rooms and a hallway off it. Each of the rooms is about 10’ x 14’.
One is a bedroom with an extremely comfortable queen size bed, and a mixture of antique armoire, dresser, two night tables, dressing table and chair, a beautiful tapestry rug and a fireplace. You get some of the idea of the size of the room when I tell you that the room is not cluttered. The room is wainscoted and the windows leaded. The 10 foot ceilings are topped by fabulous plaster ceiling moulding.
The second room is a dining room/ internet room with a single bed, large dining table and 4 chairs and marble fireplace. Silk drapes hang from ceiling to floor (Sandra says that they are a little overdone for the place but they keep the light out). Another wonderful rug is on the floor.
The third room is a TV sitting room with a couch (probably folds out to a bed) fireplace, built in cupboard and armoire, satellite TV (with about 6 million channels some in English) and DVD player, tapestry rug and coffee table.
The hallway leads to a galley kitchen with a built in convection stovetop and oven, full sized fridge with freezer on bottom, dishwasher, and washing machine/dryer combo. There are all the utensils, flatware, pans, appliances that you would want.
One little additional room houses the toilet and a wash basin, while another contains the tiled shower and another basin. Hot water on demand, that wonderful European thing, is constant and plentiful.
A family of four or five would be happy here or two couples if you flipped to see who got the good bed.
Once you get over the age of the place and, therefore, the creaking, worn floors, the shabby lobby, the fiddly locks, it is wonderful. If you can appreciate antiques and “old” is not a four letter word, it is quintessential Paris. The fridge housed a bottle of champagne and a personal note from the owner. This apartment is well stocked. Aside from the olive oil, spices, vinegars, there is a plentiful supply of toilet paper, paper towels, detergent, washing powder, hand soap, shampoo, hair dryer, thick towels, superior linens, duvets, cleaning supplies. We had expected to provide many of these things and Darrin laughed when I asked if we were expected to replenish them. There is no air conditioning but windows on two opposite sides and a floor fan should handle it.
There is internet which was not working when we arrived. Darrin phoned the owner and the problem was resolved in a day.
We would use this company again in a heartbeat - Darrin and Paula are a young American couple from Missouri who are doing this as their sole income. All contact has been positive. There is a detailed welcome book and they are available by phone and cell phone.
Would we stay in a hotel again? Not for anything longer than four or five days.

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