Tag: France

Rating: 4/5. We stayed in this apartment in Paris for 5 nights, May 10-15. Correspondence with the leasing company was very good & we had no issues finding the apartment or accessing the unit.

The Eiffel Hideaway is in an awesome location, in the center of the 7th arrondissement, 2 short blocks from Rue Cler. It is located on a narrow “passage” & is very quiet. Read the rest of this entry »

Our stay at Basse Coppette in France was one of those wonderful surprises that we will never forget. The Bresle Valley is very beautiful & Basse Coppette nestles in what can only be described as a Rural Idyll. Everything about our stay exceeded expectations: the ease of Read the rest of this entry »

Rating: 4/5. Our family of three rented this village house in Bonnieux (Provence) for two weeks in March 2007. The house is rented by the owners, Americans who stay there a few weeks a year, and is listed on the Homeaway site. Christine, the owner, is great to deal with.

The house is located at the top of the village of Bonnieux, right on the main road. It’s a typical village house, one room wide and two rooms deep. The living space extends over four floors, and you do need to be prepared to deal with narrow stairs to stay here.

The door from the street opens into the kitchen, with the dining room beyond. (Our family spent most of our recreational time in the dining room.) Stairs lead down to a small bedroom and a large, really nice bathroom (includes a washing machine). Another flight of stairs leads up to a small living room (couch converts to a bed) and a very pleasant master bedroom. At the top level is a small bathroom and a terrace. The landing area has a small refrigerator so you can store some food items near the terrace for outdoor dining. Read the rest of this entry »

We own the apartment on Rue du Cherche Midi listed by Rentals in Paris and we think they are an excellent agency. The owner, Glen Cooper, and his English speaking staff see to all the details and take very good care of their clients. The easy-to-use website accurately reflects the properties and every apartment has such amenities as a well equiped kitchen, cable tv, high speed internet, hair dryers and ironing boards. Read the rest of this entry »

Rating: 4/5. We rented this apartment in Paris in late summer 2007. The apartment is very nice and stayed very cool inside, without air conditioning. The bedrooms were very quiet at night.

The kitchen is probably the nicest room – well outfitted and comfortable to cook in. The dining room is also very nice. The master bedroom is great, but the other two bedrooms were just OK. There was no armoire or drawers in one of the bedrooms which happened to be mine, so I had to keep all my stuff spilling out of my suitcase and in an armoire in the hallway. The beds were comfortable though and we all slept well. Read the rest of this entry »

Rating: 5/5. I loved this spacious village house at top of Menerbes. Even if the house hadn’t been wonderful, the views out over the Grand Luberon mountains and the vineyards blazing with fall colors would have made it worthwhile.

The entry is a little startling the first time. Because the house is on the side of a hill, a small door into what looks like a windowless hut opens up into a high-ceilinged, light-filled entry with views out over the valley.

The main floor contains a large living room, dining room, small but efficient kitchen and a master suite with bath, bedroom and a large dressing room. We were continually drawn to the windows, and to the small terrace, to look out over the view.

Downstairs there’s another bedroom and bath, as well as a big laundry room complete with ironing board and iron.

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Rating: 3/5. This two bedroom apartment with a large terrace was, much to my surprise, right ON the main shopping street in Sarlat, something I didn’t realize from studying the website. The terrace was beautiful, and watching the street one story below on market day was fabulous.

The apartment itself was just OK, furnished with a little more yellow vinyl than I really cared for, and the living room is really just a yellow vinyl sofa in the kitchen. It was quiet, though, and the view from the terrace made everything worthwhile.

Parking did not come with the apartment, and the parking spots we found were several blocks away. It wasn’t a problem for us, but might be for others.

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Rating: 5/5. We stayed at the Bourg apartment offered by ParisForRent.com. It was simply fabulous.

The flat location is just perfect, on a small but very “parisian” street of the Rue de Rivoli in the Marais District. The staff (both Americans in California and locals in Paris) are very friendly and knowledgeable, they helped us greatly and made our vacation simply unforgettable.

I would recommend their company and particularly this apartment to my friends (and I did it…).

You can check it here: http://www.parisforrent.com/paris-apartment-rentals/bourg/

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Rating: 5/5. This was a really memorable holiday at a wonderful old French property deep in the Poitou Charentes countryside.

The owners have gone out of the way to provide everything you need to amuse and entertain a big family group for a 2 week period, there was everything from the pool to snooker, darts and table tennis, trampolining, boules and 5 a side football, play areas and a great collection of music an DVDs.

If you can pull yourself away from the French gites lovely grounds, theres loads to do in the surrounding countryside and on the fantastic local beaches. Thanks Tim and El and Nathan especially for the daily supply of organic vegetables.

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Rating: 4/5. Our family lived in the village of Bonnieux a few years ago and now we visit there often. We met the owner of these apartments through a mutual friend and had a chance to tour all four rentals in March 2007. At that time they were very recently restored. The owner Danielle is a widow who lives in the village, an excellent hostess with good taste. She speaks a little English and loves visiting the USA. Her son and daughter-in-law help her with the rentals.

The rentals (”gites”) are located right in the village of Bonnieux, just off the main square, the Place Gambetta. These are all good sized rentals, all with two bedrooms. (In one unit, the second bedroom is on a mezzanine). Each unit also has an outdoor area for relaxing or dining. They have been decorated simply but are spotlessly clean and well-equipped, including washing machines in each unit.

As is often the case with gites marketed to Europeans, there is an additional charge for linens and housekeeping is extra. The base rate is 450 euro/week in July and August and 370 euro/week in other months. (If required, heating is also extra.) This is an extremely reasonable price, especially in this part of the Luberon.

Our family would definitely enjoy staying in any of the rentals for a week or more.

Bonnieux is an excellent base for a week or more in the Luberon. There are eight or nine restaurants (several just a two minute walk from the gites), a small grocery store, a butcher, two boulangeries, and a variety of other shops and galleries. The weekly market is held on Friday mornings, on the main square just a few steps from the gite. Most of the week parking is available on the main square. (For Thursday night and Friday morning it would be necessary to park in one of the lots just below the village … a five minute walk at most.)

For photos of Bonnieux (and the rest of the Luberon), see our website at www.luberonexperience.com/photos/bonnieux/.

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