We are staying in a great place in Paris this week. Partly by accident. Partly by design. The planning part of it: We contacted the man who handled the rental of a friend's Marais apartment and asked him to inquire after reasonable two-bedroom places in the area. The accident: That this place apparently had just come on the market, and he happened to know about it.

The week we wanted had not been reserved, and we were able to negotiate a price at about 75 percent of what had been asked, and we took the leap – some luck being involved in going into a neighborhood we remembered as a bit sketchy (but no longer is). The apartment, on the second floor of six, is massive by Parisian standards. With every amenity (washer/dryer) we could reasonably expect in a nice, modern place and some (dishwasher, espresso machine) we could not.

How big is it? About 1,000 square feet, with a partly covered patio that takes up another 200 or so square feet and easily handles a table and six chairs. The living room alone is bigger than the whole of The Teeny Apartment in Abu Dhabi, and the kitchen/dining room area is nearly as big. And then add in two bedrooms, two bathrooms, built-in storage areas, pantries, standup showers ... and this is a Paris rarity, in terms of size and amenities.

 

Unless the owner is independently wealthy (and weathy Parisians usually don't live in the 11^th arrondisemont), our hunch is that they bought when the neighborhood was distressed, 15 or 20 years ago (the building has higher-than-usual levels of security; a code is needed to enter the lobby, and another code to get the elevator to move) ... and then rode the neighborhood gentrification up. After doing some comparisons to apartments for sale in the area, we're guessing this place is now worth $1.5 million, thereabouts. It also has underground garage space. Another key, not that it matters for our one-week stay.

 

You can view photos of some of the parts of the place at this link ... and as you can see, everything is quite up-to-date.

 

What is a little curious is how much of themselves the owner left behind. Dozens of family photos. What appears to be someone's "best silver." Place settings for at least 20. Normally not things you entrust to one-week renters.

 

It seems almost as if someone decided to leave ... and then did so about two weeks later, not taking some very nice things and also not storing them. (Our understanding is that the owner spends most of her time in Portugal now.) The place is clean, cleaned up, tidy, but clearly it belongs to someone else. It has the feel of a living space that this person might come back to at any moment. And why not? It's a great apartment in a lively area and about a five-minute walk from the Bastille metro station.

 

It's a bit noisy. The church up the street begins banging bells on the hour at 8 a.m. Which is good if you're working 9-to-5, but not so much if you're vacating. The street we are on is narrow, and two windows face that street, and sound echoes and seems even to be amplified before it bangs into the apartment. This is less a factor in winter, no doubt, when the triple-paned windows are closed. But in August, you want to have the windows open ... and then you deal with the noise, which is more occasional than constant.

 

We try to stay somewhere different each time we come here, to get a sense of the neighborhoods and what the possibilities are ... and they apparently are endless. Just passing by this place, you would never know what is inside. Like most places with a Latin heritage, what you see on the street is no indication at all of what lies behind the doors.