Paris - Apartment Life

Apartment life is the way to go for an extended stay.  I'd get one for a short stay also because you have space to live.

The living room.  The beige couch folds out in to a bed.

Small kitchen but enough room. 
I don't know who decided on the placement
of the cupboards.  It looks like the tile guy came in first and
installed, and then the cabinet guy came in and put them
on top of the tile line. I could only reach the bottom shelf.

Master  bedroom.

Second bedroom with queen size available.

From the 2nd bedroom showing the living room
and kitchen.

Toilette.  Small sink. It is nice that it is
seperate from the "bathroom".
Looks like the same guy installed the
high cabinet. 

Twin sinks and tub with shower.
High sides so hold on to the sink as
you get in so that you are stable.
Great hot water!

Here is a demonstration on what it took to get to the apartment on rue Herold.

Enter the number on the outside keypad and push the door.
Pulling it doesn;t work and only gives the children
standing in line at the Herb Museum next door something
to laugh at. I think that they were too young to notice...maybe.

Use the key fob to open the next door.
Don't use the key chain by mistake because
that  will only cause you to be frustrated and
will not open the door no matter how hard
you try. 

One flight of stairs...normally this looks much
larger at the end of a long day of walking...
and steeper.

Put the big key in the lock and push.  Stop to marvel that
the door knob is in the center of the door and wonder
why the ones in the US are different.
Any thoughts?

John mails complete instructions on how to get in to the apartment.  Some tips from us: notice where the light switches are when you enter during the day. Move quickly when you use the light switches because they are on timers and will go out while you are fiddling with the keys.
Click here for John's website and his wonderful Paris apartments

General notes about the apartments:
When you arrive, do a quick survey and see what you may need. Write a list and go to the store.
Coffee, filters, teas, extra toilet paper, soaps.  The apartment normally has a lot of items left by the prior residents, so you will use some and leave some.

If you cannot get the internet cxable to work, follow these steps:
1.  Turn off your computer but allow the cable to remain.
2.  Unplug the power cable from the cable box to turn it all off.  Wait 10 seconds.
3.  Plug in the power cable. The little lights will blink.
4.  Turn on your computer and you should have internet access.

If multiple laptops are in use, this will need to be done each time the laptops are switched.

Fancy combo washer and dryers: I've not had great success with these.  The best that I can do is a "rapide" wash with no dry, then turn on the dry cycle.  This allows my clothes to be more or less dry after two hours.  I find that it is just easier to take the laundry in a bag to a local laundry shop with nice sized washers and huge dryers. If you are smart, you have packed clothes that can be washed and dried together. It took about an hour so bring a book, a sandwich, or someone to chat.

Instructions are on the wall. You should be able to match
the materials (whites, synthetic) with the cycle letter.
If not, take a moment before you go and look up the words.

Put your clothes in the washer (there are three sizes
of washers so select based upon the size of your load).
Note that if you had decide to chat to someone "interesting"
while your laundry is in the washer, your underwear
will suddenly be at the front of the load and smack up
against the glass door.  Move to the other side of the room,
look out the window, or ask a question about some other machine.

Follow the instructions: Select the machine then put in the money.
If you are drying, it is 1 euro for 10 minutes. If you want 30 minutes,
then you need to select and pay (10 min), select and pay (20 min),
and select and pay (30 min). Don't make this difficult!

The dryers are huge and will hold multiple washer loads. 
The facility had the little red baskets
for loading and unloading.

These are the prices per load to wash.