Have just recently returned from our third summer trip to Paris, France, our very favorite city in the world! Once again, we stayed in a charming apartment on the Ile St. Louis, smack dab in the middle of the Seine and in the middle of this beautiful city, within five minutes of Notre Dame and within incredibly scenic walking distance of the Louvre, Musee d%26#39;Orsay, the Latin Quarter, St. Germain des Pres, the Marais, the Picasso Museum, the Pompidou Center, Pantheon, Hotel de Ville, the Conciergerie, St. Chapelle, and so much more. I HIGHLY recommend that, to get the most out of your time in this gorgeous city, you consider renting an apartment and checking out the charming island of St. Louis for your stay. While not %26quot;bargain basement%26quot; prices (you%26#39;ll pay what you%26#39;d pay to stay in a top-notch hotel), the old adage %26quot;you get what you pay for%26quot; surely holds true here.
Before I continue, a quick word: I am an infrequent poster. I guess because of this, and because my first post sung the praises of Guest Apartment Services, from whom we rented our apartment, there were questions in later postings as to whether or not I had been hired by this service to %26quot;advertise%26quot; for them. NOT TRUE. As I%26#39;ve said in the past, we are always quick to get the negatives out there to warn people off; shouldn%26#39;t we be just as ready to let others know when service goes above and beyond -- and thus give credit where credit is due? I think so, and this is why I am taking the time to let others know.
Read up on the Ile St. Louis -- charm, quiet, and atmosphere that truly cannot be described adequately, but must be experienced. Add to this a wonderful apartment and the time, care, and consideration given by Philippe Pee and Christophe Chastel of Guest Apartment Services when you rent one of their apartments, and your equation adds up to an unforgettable vacation.
Our apartment was quiet, comfortable, elegant, and, best of all, included a small, flower-lined private terrace overlooking the Seine on Quai d%26#39;Anjou. Views of the river from every floor-to-ceiling window in this quaint apartment (in a 1640 building with private entrance through an iron gate and cobblestone courtyard) PLUS the first sight you see when you sit up in bed in the tiny but comfy loft bedroom ... what more can you ask? Fully equipped kitchen, with diswasher, washer/dryer, microwave, one and one-half baths ... and atmosphere at its best for late-morning-on-the-terrace coffee and croissants and for relaxed lunches and dinners of baguettes, cheese, olives, fruit, and wine.
Christophe and Philiippe take care of everything -- fresh flowers and Evian upon your arrival, IMMEDIATE handling of any problem that might crop up, and pleasant service for almost anything. Their driver service picks you up at the airport and delivers you and your baggage directly to your apartment and then reverses the procedure upon your return home. Philippe and Christophe take care of reservations -- we used them to book the high-speed train for a day trip to the city of Dijon and for an afternoon/evening trip (via private driver) to the candlelight tour of Vaux le Vicomte with a dinner stop, for which they also made reservations, in the charming village of Barbizon. These trips were recommendations of Phillippe%26#39;s and Christophe%26#39;s, and were well worth our time to complete. I can even thank Philippe for his %26quot;whirlwind%26quot; wine tutorial -- buy a red Burgundy wine from the year 2003! We have come to feel that these two are friends; we cannot say enough about their attentiveness to their clients. They worked hard to help us deal with British Airways, who did not send our luggage on to Paris from Heathrow until the eleventh and twelfth days of our fourteen-day stay -- thank you, British Air! Without their help, getting the bags delivered correctly would have been difficult, as our French can%26#39;t hold a candle to theirs! As I said, they will come to your assistance for WHATEVER is needed.
With this being our third summer in the city, we spent much more time exploring, via walking, this gorgeous city and taking our time merely breathing in atmosphere -- didn%26#39;t feel the need to rush from one major attraction to the next. I think this is one of the advantages to revisiting a favorite destination, as we have done twice, now. Some of our favorite %26quot;new%26quot; experiences this summer were the Picasso Museum, near the Bastille, and the Salvadore Dali museum (in Montmartre). We enjoyed many lovely wine-and/or-coffee evenings at the small cafes at the end of Ile St. Louis and wonderful dinners at the tiny Le Relais de L%26#39;Isle, complete with live piano music, on the main street of Ile St. Louis. Enjoy a crepe at the %26quot;take-out%26quot; window (my favorite was fromage, jambon, et l%26#39;oignon) and the always too-good-to-be-true, world-famous Berthillon ice cream and sorbet (try the melon sorbet; it is unbelievable). Mainly, spend many hours just soaking up the charm of this petite island, where you%26#39;ll feel you%26#39;ve stepped back into the past. If you can, rent an apartment from Philippe and Christophe that overlook the Seine; your visual memories will last you a lifetime.
Once again, please don%26#39;t be skeptical -- I am NOT a %26quot;for-hire%26quot; poster for Guest Apartment Services -- go to their website -- www.guestapartment.com -- and look at some of their apartments yourself. Ours was %26quot;ROSE,%26quot; and I can tell you that the photos are accurate; you won%26#39;t arrive and find something that doesn%26#39;t resemble what you thought you were going to see! We feel very lucky that we serendipitously %26quot;found%26quot; Philippe and Christophe for our first stay; we%26#39;ll never use anyone else, and we would not even consider staying anywhere else in Paris but on the Ile St. Louis. If you go, you%26#39;ll understand why.
Please post and let me know if you look into this and also if you give it a try. While we have plans to visit Turkey next summer, I can guarantee you that we will return to Paris and to Guest Apartment Services in the future. They have been the %26quot;gold standard%26quot; for all of our vacations thus far, and I suspect they will remain so.
Happy Paris vacationing! We hope you will enjoy this lovely city as much as we have.
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Apt rose I presume. Is there another cushy chair in there besides the love seat?
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AH I missed you saying Rose. We can%26#39;t make our spring reservation til Oct so we are still considering Rose, Hibiscus and Arum left bank right at Tournelle bridge
Any thoughts on these others
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Hi, Bill %26amp; Linda - I agree with you about Guest Apartment Services (I have mentioned on here several times, because I think they are just great). We have stayed in Rose several times (I knew which one it was long before I got to that point in your post), and loved it. We also stayed in Arum one year over Christmas (we had three people, which is too small for Arum, plus the terrace would not be much use in December!). I also stayed (on a %26quot;girlfriend shopping trip) in a flat on Quai de Bethune (don%26#39;t recall the name now), which had a second bed in a curtained alcove although it was technically a one-bedroom flat.
This really is just a great way to go - I sometimes tell myself I will try other areas but since I first stayed on Ile St Louis (having previously stayed several times in other areas, including the 6th, 7th, and 4th), I just want to go back there because it seems like %26quot;home%26quot; to me. It is true that this particular agency has fairly expensive places (although I saw one on their web site recently, called Daisy, that technically is a studio but has the bed on a mezzanine so looks quite roomy and would not have a %26quot;studio feel%26quot; plus it%26#39;s on quai d%26#39;Anjou, near Rose, at the rear of the island away from the touristy places at the Notre Dame end). Considering that Daisy is 146E per night it%26#39;s less than a lot of nice hotels! In fact, most of their studios are no more than a good hotel, but far larger and more comfortable, plus the advantages of being able to shop for food on the island, do some cooking, etc.
Glad you posted your comments - this agency deserves a loyal following.
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Hello Felschurch and Berkeley Travelers -- glad, Berkeley, to hear other G.A.S. followers out there ... you%26#39;re right, they DO deserve a loyal following. Just received a recent e-mail from Philippe, who kindly offered to help me with information on a future trip to Italy; that%26#39;s just the kind of people they are. Felschurch, Berkeley stayed in Arum -- sounds good, and the photos are beautiful. My thought would be -- not quite as quiet as Rose, would you agree? Hibiscus looks lovely; keep in mind that its location will be a bit busier than Rose%26#39;s location, without the river view; can%26#39;t tell you about Arum, but my be less quiet there, too. Rose%26#39;s living area has two other upholstered chairs besides the loveseat (which opens into a little-larger-than-single-size sofabed). The loft bedroom has a terrific view -- but it is not where you will spend the majority of your time, as it is, being a loft, a bit tight on space. The terrace, in the quiet location it is, is a huge draw -- when, as Berkeley says, the weather is appropriate for terrace sitting. Whatever the season, the location is unbeatable -- as Berkeley says, it is at the quieter end of this quaint island, and you can%26#39;t get much closer to the Seine unless you sit on its very-nearby banks! My own personal feeling is that if you can, if it is your first visit, stay right on Ile St. Louis, as opposed to Arum on the Left Bank, the environment is well worth it. I hope I%26#39;ve helped, and I wish you a very pleasant vacation in Paris.
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Actually, Arum is quiet - it%26#39;s on the 5th or 6th floor (I don%26#39;t really recall - there is an elevator!), and has double glazed windows so doesn%26#39;t get much street noise (although we were there in winter, so didn%26#39;t leave the windows open a lot). Also, that street/intersection is not particularly busy at night (much like streets on the island), so although there is lots of traffic during the day (when one typically is %26quot;out and about%26quot;) that should not be an issue for someone staying there.
Arum certainly would not be noiser than Rose during the evenings when the tour boats go by with megaphones at full volume! (We didnt find that problematic, but still were thankful that the boats stop around 11:30, as the sound and the klieg lights were a bit much sometimes - two of our stays in Rose were in summer, so we needed to have the windows to be open for ventilation.)
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Good info. The Arum apartment looks absolutely lovely, too. Yes, the tour boats are quite interesting, aren%26#39;t they? It%26#39;s actually kind of fun to watch them and hear them go by -- but, yes, it%26#39;s good that they stop a bit after 11. Very small price to pay for the location, the view, the terrace, the atmosphere ...
Each summer we%26#39;ve been there, we%26#39;ve watched, in the mornings, the police scuba divers working out in the Seine. That%26#39;s been interesting. And we love the threesome of mounted police that make their way down Quai d%26#39;Anjou almost every morning, too.
I%26#39;m making myself %26quot;homesick,%26quot; because, like you, Berkeley, we always feel as if our little Rose apartment is %26quot;home%26quot; for us in Paris. We know where everything is, where we%26#39;re going to put everything, and how very much we%26#39;re going to enjoy every moment of our stay in the apartment, on the Ile St. Louis, and in Paris and France itself. Wish we could buy it! (Pipe dreams ... gotta have %26#39;em!)
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Bill %26amp; Linda - couldn%26#39;t agree more! I had forgotten the police scuba divers (also, had forgotten how totally still the surface of the river is, early in the morning before the boats start!). We had a lot of fun shopping for food on the island (the LeBlanc fromagerie, the green grocer, etc.). My husband made the early run for breakfast croissants and fresh orange juice from the produce market on rue des Deux Ponts (they started giving him French lessons with the words for the fruits and vegetables, when they realized he wanted to learn).
Did you discover the Ile St Louis specially commissioned Gault houses - which are not available anywhere else, even the Gault shop on rue de Rivoli - at the shop down from Berthillion? Over the course of several trips we have ended up with quite a few (including the mansion at the tip of the island, just down from 5 quai d%26#39;Anjou.
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We have made our reservations months ago with GuestApartments and will be staying in %26quot;NARCISSE%26quot; in late November. Phillipe has been friendly and helpful and from the sound of your visit that helpfulness seems to continue during your stay and after!
Do you have any dining or shopping ideas in the area?
I did see your earlier post from 2006 when I was searching TA looking for someone who used this rental company after I put down the deposit. When I saw your original post I thought we made a good choice. We are in Swarthmore/Springfield PA and valued your perspective being that you are almost neighbors.
Would love to get your insight as to how to make our 1st Paris/Europe trip all the more special.
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guest apartment service, looks great, but very expensive ....
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Kimba, %26quot;Narcisse%26quot; looks great (plus it%26#39;s always fun to find out what%26#39;s behind those completely private courtyard doors on main streets!). You will find many places to shop and eat all up and down the main street (and, as many on this forum will tell you, the best ice cream - Berthillion - and gelato - Amarino - anywhere is also on that main street). It%26#39;s a very convenient location in every respect (there%26#39;s even a post office and an ATM on the cross street at the center of the island).
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