NYC Blogger Stays in a Paris Apartment

March 5, 2010  by Maggie Battista

Introduction by Maggie Battista

I’m in love, and it’s not just with Paris.

As a member of the Haven in Paris team, I feel very lucky to get to know amazing people from all over the world who stay in our luxury Paris apartments. Guests are very dear, and it feels as if we let them in on a little secret: they can indeed feel like real Parisians by staying in well-stocked, carefully decorated Paris homes. The saying ‘home away from home’ was coined for our apartments.

While each and every guest is special, I met up with the perfect guest at the perfect moment last week. I’ve been a bit lonely, missing my husband, Boston friends and all my blogger friends. And as I’m still learning French, it’s not easy to make new friends. That’s where our guest Kari saved the day.

Kari happens to be a New York City blogger, photographer and all-around great lady. We met up for a quick drink. Four drinks and four plates later, we were fast friends. She blogged about her Haven in Paris apartment and let us re-post it here. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to stay in one of our apartments, and specifically one of our Montmartre properties, read on. Thanks for the kind words, Kari!

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Text and photos from Lit-Wit

My first trip to Paris? Accommodations mattered. Were critical, in fact. I had no desire to spend a week in a hotel—although I love hotels—because hotel rooms feel stale after a while (no matter how grand) and I’m not the sort of girl who would ever say, Oh, I won’t be spending any time in my room anyway. I like rooms! Also, I like naps. I have only two feet and two eyes and I find sightseeing, as an hours-long hobby that requires my active attention and participation, fundamentally exhausting. Ditto chit-chatting daily with concierges, bellhops, and maids, and doubly so in a foreign city where I do not speak (or really understand) the language. I wanted freedom of movement and a modicum of space in which to unwind and absorb, to occasionally buy my own food and cook my own meals, and to go or stay at my leisure on a common city street.

(Is there a common city street in Paris?)

(These paragraph breaks are arbitrary, by the way. I am in the mood for e x p a n s i v e t h i n k i n g .)

So when I read about the short-term rental apartments at Haven in Paris on the blog A CUP OF JO last September I signed up immediately, after performing the requisite checks and reading copious online reviews. (Repeat: I’m a planner, and I don’t cut corners when I travel alone. Which explains my attachment to Town Car International, as well.)

I’M SPENDING A WEEK IN AN APARTMENT IN PARIS! I sang to myself daily for six months. Honest, I did. And now that I’ve done it (sigh! it’s done), I sing to myself, I LIVED FOR A WEEK IN AN APARTMENT IN PARIS! Because this wasn’t visiting, this was living. I had an elevator and a huge open space on the seventh floor flooded with natural light and a full bath and shower and a queen-sized bed and a real kitchen and table and a French press for coffee and a stove to scramble eggs on and a corkscrew and wine glasses and a view of Sacré Coeur and all of Montmartre—all of Paris—right there at my feet. And I loved it. I loved everything about it.

And when I go back next year, I’m staying here.

See more great photos and read the rest of Kari’s post.

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Written by Maggie Battista for the HiP Paris Blog. Looking for a fabulous vacation rental in Paris, Provence, or Tuscany? Check out Haven in Paris.

Tags: Haven in Paris, Luxury Apartment Rentals Paris, Montmartre, Paris Vacation rental, Recommended Blogs
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