I spent hours trying to find the perfect place in Paris that we could live in for five weeks.  What was nice is that we had an idea of what we needed and wanted because of our experience last summer in Lyon, France.  We were looking for a place that had some space and had good WIFI so Dusty could work from the apartment, that was conducive for cooking meals, that was in a decent location and close to the necessities, that had some type of second bed or couch for my friend to sleep on when she was visiting, and if possible, a good view.  I was also looking for a lift (elevator or didn’t have too many steps), we don’t mind walking up stairs but when you’re walking up six flights of winding stairs with two very large pieces of luggage and then walking up and down them in high heels on a regular basis, you’ll think twice about it.  And of course, I wanted a washing machine and dryer.  I didn’t want to have to go to a Laundromat every time I needed to do laundry.  We also preferred a place that didn’t have a lot of personal belongings and had space that we could really “move in” while we were there. I think we would also need to make spare keys, as usually they give just one, and it is not enough. I believe they should have a reliable locksmith service just as our local locksmith (check out Liberty Locksmith of Calgary website if you are struggling to find good services).

I started looking for apartments on websites such as VRBO and ParisStay.com that had a great listing of vacation homes in Paris in January.  I also did a little searching on Airbnb and others but ended up finding a place using ParisStay.com. After finding some places I had to email the agency to see if they were available.  After several emails back letting us know apartments were available for the entire five weeks we needed it, we finally found one that met all of our needs. Then came the renters agreement, rental deposits, downpayment, and renters insurance.  Here are a few pictures of the outside of our apartment building and our view from the balconies. Pictures include: (1) Our place was on the top floor with two balconies off of the living room and bedroom (2) View of the Eiffel Tower (3) Left: Our door; Right: Close up of our view of the Eiffel Tower (4) Our view of Place de la Bastille (5) View of our balcony from inside.