The ParisSharing Blog

Archive for the ‘Parisian accommodations’ Category

Here’s a very sweet scoop for you and your sweetheart, and another reason to choose ParisSharing for your Valentine’s escapade in 2012.  We’ve teamed up with Chloe Chocolat, Paris’ up-and-coming boutique chocolate artisan or chocolatier, to help you melt her (or his) heart.

When you book any stay on ParisSharing from February 1st to 18th, we will offer you a chocolate gift from Chloe. You can also pre-order as much chocolate as you’d like, and it will be ready for you in your apartment or B&B when you arrive.

This is not just any chocolate, and you won’t find it just anywhere. Chloe’s creativity is like that of a chef:  she assembles ingredients to create a new and delicious blend.  She has tasted and analysed the best chocolates in the world, and her talent and intuition have given birth to a small collection of chocolate bars, a personal and secret blend of some of the best chocolates in the world. These chocolates are not available on the market, only directly from Chloe and hand-picked merchants.

Indulge while you’re in Paris ! To benefit from our offer, simply request your Chloe chocolatwhen you book on ParisSharing. If you want to see price information for ordering more, see ChloeChocolat.com.

ParisSharing is all about joie de vivre for your stay in Paris. Chloe Chocolat is all about joy and passion. What more can you ask for your Valentine’s stay in Paris ? When you click on any of the chocolate images below, you’ll see a surprise Valentine’s apartment show up. Which will be yours ?

One last thing: if you are hesitating on Paris for your Valentine’s destination and wondered why it’s universally known as a city for lovers, we actually answered that question last year at this time.  You can refresh your memory here.

Joie de vivre in 2012.

For many, times seem to be getting harder, and the New Year carries a full load of uncertainties.

Still, we wish you many rich and rewarding travels in 2012 and remain committed to providing the best value for your stay in Paris, as a couple, a family or a small group.

But that’s only what we sell.

More important is what we share, and what we’d most like to share with you is joie de vivre…a life full of joys, great and small. The sheer beauty of Paris, and the endless sources of pleasure and enrichment that the city offers, will already give you a dose of those joys. Now, just imagine what it will be like to be greeted and hosted by people who share that joie de vivre with you. Imagine staying in homes with a soul where the joy of living is palpable.

In 2012, we’ll be offering you several exclusive Parisian delights, all selected to make your experience of joie de vivre à la parisienne all the more memorable.  Have a glimpse at some of these,  a few of our favourite things, on our Joie de Vivre photo collection.

Stay subscribed to our newsletter to learn about these new delights as they are revealed, and join us on Facebook to give us your suggestions.

Remember, if you live a life that is open to the world, there will always be two places of joy: one that is  your own and one that is called joie de vivre. Thomas Jefferson would certainly have agreed when he wrote : “Everyone has two homelands, their own and La France.”

Join us for joie de vivre this year!

And here are some recently added joie de vivre places to stay from ParisSharing, just waiting for you. Click on photos to see details.

A home in Paris enjoyed by guests from Sydney

Almost a sixth of ParisSharing guests come from down under. Considering the distance and the expense involved in such a trip, that’s more than we would expect. Our ParisSharing hosts enjoy Australian guests, who always prove to be open, enthusiastic, and respectful of people’s homes.  Their trip to Paris is often a big  and sometimes once-in-a-lifetime event. We are always delighted to make it special for them. Some write back to thank us, and sometimes (even better) write about us in the paper!

This month features an article in the Sydney Morning Herald from one of our guest Australian families who spend a week in the lesser-known Butte-aux-Cailles neighborhood last spring. It describes the experience of having a historically unique Parisian home entirely to one’s family,  a comfortable and convenient base for discovering local life in addition to all the must-see monuments. The only inconvenience: kids like homes with other kid’s toys and sometimes prefer to stick around and play rather than sight-see!

Read the full article here.

About the same time, we had another ParisSharing member from Sydney offer her apartment for a home swap. As you probably know, ParisSharing offers rentals, home exchanges, and B&B. You can have a look at her offer here. Maybe you’d like to go and enjoy the sunshine and the swimming pool?

Paris for Syndey, anyone?

To arrange a swap, all you have to do is register your own home on the ParisSharing website and then submit a request directly to the owner the home you want to swap with. Unlike most home swapping websites, ParisSharing does not charge you a subscription unless you actually succeed in finding an exchange partner. Lastly, we offer self-catering rentals and B&B as alternative approaches to home sharing. This is because home exchange, even though the most economic option for all parties, is not always easy to arrange since it requires finding just the right match in terms of destination, lifestyle, and timing.

Fall brings a new season of exhibitions to Paris museums.  Here is a list of the top five exhibits to see while visiting The City:

Grand Palais -  Of Toys and Men (September 14, 2011 – January 23, 2012)

Of Toys and Men is the history of toys in the western world and highlights the importance of toys in children’s education from birth.  The exhibit is possibly the largest toy exhibit ever featuring thousands of toys from Antiquity to modern day.

Centre Pompidou – Edvard Munch (September 21, 2011 – January 9, 2012)

The Centre Pompidou presents Edvard Munch, l’oeil moderne [Edvard Munch, the modern eye], a collection of eighty paintings, thirty drawings, fifty photographs and a film all shown for the first time in France.

Musee Maillol – Pompei (September 21, 2011 – February 12, 2012)

In 79AD, the city of Pompei was completely buried under lava and ash from the catastrophic eruption of the volcano Vesuvius.  However, the extremely well preserved ruins of Pompei rose from the ashes when they were discovered in the 1700’s.  The exhibit guides visitors through a typical Pompeian home, featuring over 200 artifacts including wall murals, vases and jewelry.

Musee du Louvre – La Cité Interdite – Forbidden City (September 26, 2011 – January 9, 2012)

The Louvre exhibit features 130 artifacts from China’s Forbidden City on loan from the ancient imperial palace museum.  Artifacts range from jade carvings, lacquerware, seals, porcelain and bronzes to personal items previously owned by Ming and Qing Dynasty emperors.

Les Arts Decoratifs – Goudemalion – Jean Paul Goude Retrospective (November 11, 2011 – March 18, 2012)

Les Arts Décoratifs welcomes this grand retrospective of Jean-Paul Goude, the French graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, director and art director. For over 40 years, Goude has been one of the advertising world’s leading “image makers”, who is best-known for his campaigns for such brands as Perrier, Citroën, Galeries Lafayette and Chanel.

Fall is one of the best times of the year to visit Paris, and it’s an excellent time to take advantage of some of ParisSharing’s wonderful apartments at special fall prices.

The founder of ParisSharing debunks three myths about the so-called “outer” arrondissements of Paris, that most tourists never visit.

The Great Gate to Paris ? Depends where you come from.

I once had an American couple stop me in the street and ask directions to the Marché Aligre, which is one of Paris’ largest, most cosmopolitan, and least expensive street markets. They pulled out their Paris map and asked me to point. I rapidly glanced at the map, confident about where my finger would land without even a second thought. Think again! I was astonished to discover that we were off the map, as was the Marché Aligre!
Where were we exactly? On the corner of rue Charonne and rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, a bustling shopping street that heads east from the Place de la Bastille.
And what kind of map would not include this district of Paris? A map edited by Frommer’s, one of the most widely sold guide books. In fact, not only does the map show nothing east of Bastille, it also shows nothing west of Trocadéro, nothing north of the Parc Monceau, and nothing south of the Jardin de Luxembourg. In practical terms, this means that two of the city’s most important train stations (Gare de Lyon and Gare d’Austerlitz) do not even appear. As for Montmartre, the most visited “village” in the world, there is a special inset.

Returning to the story of my bewildered visitors, I told them that the market they were looking for was just down the road to the right, and encouraged them to continue their explorations off the map.

Editors publish for their audience, and it is true that the majority of first-time visitors to Paris focus on the center of the city. The unfortunate retroactive side-effect of disseminating a truncated map of Paris is to lead a great number of visitors to believe that whatever is off the map is either too far away or of little interest. This is especially the case when searching for accommodations. We’ve had bucket loads of people telling us they only want to stay in the 1-9 arrondissements. Why only up to nine? Ask Frommer, or any other of the top Google information sources. Imagine a map of New York City showing only 10 blocks around Central Park. You can forget about the Statue of Liberty, Wall St. Chelsea, China Town, West Village, SoHo, etc. Incidentally, there is also a replica of the Statue of Liberty in Paris that you can admire from the famous Pont Mirabeau (except that both of these are off the map!)

Parisians, who know the distances and transportation system well, have a very different vision of Paris. Some of the city’s most sought-after neighborhoods are not even represented on the Frommer’s map, such as Autueil, Passy, Ternes, Batignolles and Villiers on the West side; Oberkampf, Charonne, Gambetta, Buttes Chaumont, Butte aux Cailles, Bercy on the East side. Not to mention all of the upscale neighborhoods that edge the city’s outer parks: Bois de Boulogne, Domaine de St. Cloud, Bois de Vincennes, Parc de Montsouris. If you happen to live in Neuilly, St. Cloud, Sèvres, Levallois, Vincennes, St. Mandé, or Saint-Maurice, you may be off the map, but you definitely have the right address!

Real estate prices have increased substantially throughout the city, with only a brief dip during the worst of the 2009 crisis. Previously proletariat neighborhoods are being gentrified, particularly on the East side.
The point is this: you can be a Frommer’s kind of tourist and stick to the old map, or you can venture off and maybe discover the next big thing. When choosing a vacation accommodation, this is a way to save. An apartment with a lovely view over the Buttes-Chaumont will not be priced the same as one that overlooks the Tuilleries. You will have an easier time finding family accommodations in districts with a lower real estate price per sq. meter. Makes sense, doesn’t it? So why are people so reticent? Probably as a result of several myths.

Myth #1 : Off the map = not safe
There are a few pockets in the city where I would not personally choose to walk around at night. The majority of these are located north of the Gare du Nord and east of Montmartre. But I would still prefer these to downtown Cleveland. Security is difficult to measure; it has a lot to do with our perception. What is perceptible is that the streets of Paris, wherever you may be, are rarely abandoned. There is also an active police presence. At the train stations and key monuments, you are even treated to security patrols carrying machine guns! Wow, don’t you feel safe!

Myth #2 : Off the map = too far from tourist attractions
The most visited tourist attractions are not located in the same area of Paris. The Eiffel Tower is on the opposite side of town from the Père Lachaise cemetery and the Parc de la Vilette, and these are all on the opposite side of town from Montmartre or the Mouffetard quartier. So, which will you choose? How about staying right in the center so as to reduce your average transportation time? Guess what, you’re not the only one to have thought of that! So, that clever choice will result in paying a premium. How much of a premium? The first premium is the price of the accommodation. Expect at least +25%. The second premium (less well-known), is the price of everything else. You can easily pay three times more for fresh foods in a grocery store in the 8th than you would pay at a street market in a less upscale area of the city. Likewise, a restaurant near the Eiffel Tower will easily cost you +50% what you would pay for the same quality off the beaten path.
So, before you decide to follow the masses, you might consider how much time you will actually lose in transportation were to to stay “off the map”. You can then compare the “cost” of this time to the cash consequences of your choice.
Did you realize that wherever you stay in Paris, you can get to just about any tourist attraction within 30 minutes on public transportation? For example, if you were to stay near the Place de la Nation (which is totally off the Frommer’s map), you can get to the Louvre in 18 min and the Eiffel Tower in 30 min. Do you really plan on going to the Eiffel Tower more than once? What is more likely is that you will spend the majority of your time in the center of the city, and you can easily get there from many “off the map” locations within 15 minutes on public transportation. For example, you can get from Belleville to the Town Hall in 10 min on the metro (or on a bike, for that matter).

Also consider this: thousands of tourists pay to ride a special double-decker bus to visit various sites in Paris. They probably don’t count this as “transportation time”. You can also hop on a public bus using your transportation pass (the same you use for the metro) and consider your transportation time as sightseeing.

Myth #3 : The best of Paris is on the map
In terms of monuments, that’s true. In terms of shopping and eating out, that’s not necessarily true. You’ll find comparatively great value and amazing discoveries off the map, whether you’re looking for legendary French food products, fashion, or decorative objects. Your chances of being pleasantly surprised are significantly higher off the map. Sure, you can eat a Big Mac on the Champs-Elysées for approximately 7.50€, but that will NEVER be an experience to write home about. Unless, that is, you are an extremely talented writer. Still, if you ventured off the map, say to the backside of Montmartre, you could have paid four more euros to be served a sumptuous lunch out on the terrace, prepared by a chef with as much talent as you have for writing.

In conclusion, if you are a savvy traveler and your map of Paris doesn’t show all of Paris, get a new guide book! You can pick up a free map of Paris at any metro station, and you can learn a bit about different Paris neighborhoods on dedicated pages of the ParisSharing website or through online resources such as Guide2Paris. You may also enjoy having a look at our slideshow of places in Paris that have been left off the aforementioned tourist map.

In 1660, Louis XIV made his royal entry into Paris with his newly wed Marie Theresa passing through what is today known as Place de la Nation. Two columns were later erected with kings Philippe II et Louis IX set on top of them. The deceased kings would likely be disturbed at having been evinced from the tourist map. But that is not reason enough to pay them a visit. Take time rather to walk up the rue des Pyrénées, a very long, tree-lined street that begins east of Place de la Nation and winds its way up to the Buttes Chaumont. As much as any street in Paris, this one will give you a taste of real Parisian life with its host of bakers, butchers, wine shops, and specialty stores.

About the author:

Founder of ParisSharing, Carsten is an American having lived in France since 1994, with over twelve years in Paris and the Paris area. In the course of his work, either in shorts or in a suite, he has walked or biked through every Paris neighborhood, and has definitively lost his ability to get lost. He has also visited nearly a  hundred Paris homes, and tested as many Paris restaurants.