Paris luxury apartment rental in the Marais: Marais Mansion

Bonjour Jamie!

I've finally recovered from jeg lag, juggled the hand grenades on my desk, made up to my cats and found a moment to send you that email report on our Paris trip that I promised.

But really, what can I say? It's an amazing city and two weeks was NOT enough. We saw most everything, and got a chance to know the Le Marais neighborhood - but still there is more to see and do, and some of it is just to hang out and do nothing.

We climbed the Arc, walked Champs D'Elysee, had lunch at the Tour Eiffel, poked around in Notre Dame, St. Chappelle and St. Sulpice, toured the Louvre, the D'Orsay, the Pompidou, the Picasso, shopped on Rue St. Honore and Le Marais and Printemp and Gallery Lafayette and even at a little place called Gallery Vivienne and Colbert, which was very cool.

I ate everything in sight and lost weight, we walked so much. Some of our best meals were at the local bistros (Les Philosophes became our favorite). My grand birthday at L'Arpege was, frankly, disappointing and way, way more expensive than we expected. (300 EU per person, basically). I mean it was a fabulous venue and the service was exquisite, but the food was very plain and not a lot better than some of the local places. The best part, of course, was the birthday "cake" they served!! It was layers of pastry with cream filling and was probably the most delicious and unusual birthday cake I've ever had! Thank you, thank you.

The next day, though, I called all the "grand" restaurants and cancelled our reservations. I felt bad, after all the effort and help you gave us, but having gotten to know our neighborhood a little and figured out the Paris scene, we decided that we didn't need that many fancy restaurants. We did, however, eat twice at Les Bookeniste - for a starred restaurant, it offered the best balance of chic atmosphere, great food, and "normal" prices. I highly recommend it for your future guests.

The apartment pretty darn perfect. We had a snafu getting in - the "big" door has a code, and we couldn't figure out how to get through it, and Anju was no where to be seen. But we found a guy leaving the building, who had a cell phone and he called Anju and there she was in the window waving! So, finally we arrived. And we loved it. Only one problem... We could never really figure out the expresso machine, so we drank instant for a while and then found the coffee press - which we broke! And so we bought a replacement. Not a big deal.

But otherwise, we grew to love being in Le Marais, and with two courtyards on either side, it was our own little haven in the middle of a bustling city - and it was great to come back "home" at the end of the day or evening to it.

I can't wait to go back! And I'll be in touch with you when I do. I also have given your email address to other people at work who are thinking about apartments. I told them I spend hours on the Internet, and ultimately would just go directly to you next time, and save all that sweat. So you may hear from Laura B. or Ron L. or Mark W.

Merci beaucoup again, Jamie, for your help with this. I know it's your job, but I feel like you went above and beyond. I look forward to our next adventure together!

A bientot!
Polly M.