I love giving opinions about apts., it's a lot easier when you don't have to stay in them or decide yourself!

I think they are both okay, it's hard to say. I agree with Mike that it could depend on your situation and how familiar you are with Paris and what you want to do. The second one in the 11th looks nice enough, but it bugs me when owners are so coy or vague about including pictures and info. LIke in this one, they don't show very many photos of the place -- it's too small to be a two bedroom apt., that's why I wondered, but it looks okay. It is very common for Paris apts. to have washers and NO DRYERS, so I am sure that is the case here or they would say they had a dryer. For one week, I wouldn't even care, and a washer but no dryer isn't that useful anyway -- maybe for underwear or something easy to hang dry.

I would have been against the Louvre one due to it's location on that busy street, but it says it is fourth floor and overlooks the courtyard, to may be okay. Unfortunately you never know if an apt. is going to be really quiet until you get there and find out what the neighbors or building right across the street is like, etc. So you can try for the best, but never know. For example, one I rented an apt. on the 3rd floor of a building in the 15th arr. on a narrow side street. You'd think this should be very quiet, huh? Well, the neighbors in the apt. building right across the street were young and played loud rock music for hours, and of course the windows were open as it was summer. ON top of that, there was an Algerian small bar/cafe down in front on the ground floor across the street and they played twangy dissonant Middle Eastern string music (you know the kind at Afghan restaurants or Indian, it's an acquired taste) at loud volume on a boombox and started real early in the morning and went until late at night. I never would have expected that, it wouldn't even look like the kind of place you'd expect to be playing any music, few small cafes do. So, anyway, you just really never know for sure about quiet, but both of these sound okay on the surface about that.

YOu just have to be aware that the one near Gardette square is going to involve more travel and be more inconvenient in that way, but will be more of a regular neighborhood.

Well thank you everyone - you have all been so helpful pointing out things that we hadn't really thought about. It is not our first trip to Paris but the others were short stays where we just 'did' the main sights. This time we wanted to feel a bit more as if we were 'living' in Paris rather than just visiting and see some of the more obscure less well-known things.

It has always been my husband's dream to live in Paris and this is a little trial run so I suppose the Square Gardette apartment is more like the real thing. I agree with Christina that they have been a bit coy with providing photographs.

I will contact both owners and see what eventuates.

Christina the rock band and the odd music sound really awful and I hope that we can avoid your experience in that regard.

Thanks again for all the input.

Josephine

One more comment: I understand that VRBO charges by the photo, so you might ask them to email you additional ones.

The Square Maurice Gardette, just off Avenue Parmentier in the 11th Arrondissement is just fine. But "near" is a rather elastic word. How about a street address? Of course, there are no "sights" in the vicinity but neither are the businesses constantly occupied with visitors who have difficulty communicating their wants and needs. The welcome is likely to be warmer where you youself are a novelty rather than a common sight. Good restaurants are aren't much in evidence in the surrounds of the square but they aren't that far away either, in the rue Oberkampf area and the surrounds of Place de la Bastille.

The apartment "near" the Marais is a bit "out there". But, not that far.

If you go to www.pagesjaunes.fr, click on the British flag, then (over on the right) click on Paris from the drop down menu, enter 8 & rue General Renault, you will find that building on the corner with the blue facade on the ground floor. Then, you can poke around the neighborhood with the hand/cursor.

Then, if you go to www.ratp.fr and enter the same address then click on "Plan du Quartier", you will see that there are stops for three bus routes nearby. Bus 69 is fantastic. You can go west to Place de la Bastille, the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Invalides and on to the Eiffel Tower. At Place de la Bastille, you connect to bus routes to everywhere else.

Richard Lenoir (magnificent, Thursdays and Sundays) market is about 1/2 mile away (and on the Bus 69 route).

I'd sure like to see many more photos of each apartment.

The apartment near the Louvre is fantastically located for seeing and doing, but probably not for shopping for groceries and take-away nearby (other than the Ave President Wilson market). You'll step out each day with beautiful views to the Louvre, Tuileries and across the Seine, but you'll be dodging throngs of tourists. Everything in this neighborhood will be much pricier than in the 11th.

The apartment is the 11th would definitely be more like "living" in Paris.

PS Are you staying days of the week that would more or less coincide with a Carte Orange? If so, I'd recommend going all over on the buses - so you can enjoy the scenery all over and also see quickly find appealing resources (cafes, grocery stores, food shops, etc.) in your "neighborhood". On a bus, you can always hop off when you see something interesting.

Thank you all again - so helpful. We will take all your advice to heart.

jofrommelbourne... did you rent the apartment in the 11th? I'm in email dialogue about it now. How was it? It seems great for my adult daughter and I, but a first hand account would be great.