The Paris Apartment

This is a long time coming, but friends and family have asked to see photos of the apartment in Paris where I stayed last month. It seems like a lifetime ago, maybe because I’ve been mostly on the road this summer. I just sent my agent 85,000 words of my revised manuscript for memoir #2 and finally have some time to put together these Paris apartment photos. The apartment was near the Bastille Metro station and so convenient and local.

Is this front door stunning or what?

This is the foyer and shows the tall the doors and ceiling.

There was a tiny elevator that fit one person, but we always took the stairs. Our flat was on the first floor (second in US terms), so we just walked up a flight of the spiral staircase.

This pretty door was at the bottom of the staircase, across from the elevator entrance on the ground floor. It opened to a little courtyard where the garbage and recycling bins lived. I swear, every morning it seemed like people unloaded dozens of wine bottles from the night before.

Another photo of the stairs. There were quite a few little kids in the building, so their parents used the elevator for their strollers.

Just inside the front door of the apartment. The bathroom is through the door on the left. The smaller bedroom is through the door on the right.

Further down that hallway. The kitchen is behind me.

This is the living room, where the little ones slept. The couches were also studio beds, so opened up into twin beds. It worked out so well because when the kids got up, all their stuff was right there and they didn’t need to wake the rest of us up.

The living room also had this dining table, where we ate breakfast, a lunch, and a dinner.

This is the living room window. Those metal rods outside are the frames for the market stalls that are set up every Sunday and Thursday. We loved that market and my mom found the tastiest butter I’ve ever had. I ate that with a little piece of baguette every morning!

On a market day, the scene outside the same window as above.

This is the smaller bedroom. I waited until the last day, when we were stripping the beds, to take this photo.

The room had a little desk.

This is the other bedroom.

It was my kids’ and husband’s first time staying in an apartment in Europe and it was a great experience. Just outside the apartment was a small Lebanese restaurant that opened at random times each night. We timed it right one evening and it turned out to be one of our favorite dinners that week.

I’ve rented rooms in apartments in Eastern Europe, but it’s certainly nice to have the whole flat to ourselves. Do you prefer staying in hotels or renting out an airbnb or vrbo?