Hi everyone,
I know there are loads of Paris apartment rental threads, but mine's a bit different. I'm looking for an apartment to rent long-term (mid-May to mid-August, I'll be studying at the Sorbonne). It will be just myself, although I may have a few visitors from home throughout the summer. I'm looking for a cheap apartment (preferably under 700 euro a month, which i know is doable). I would prefer for it not to be closet-sized and, since I'm a 19 year old girl and will generally be living alone, I'd rather it not be in peripheral arrondissements to the north or east (17, 18, 19, 10, 20), although I adore the 14th and other peripheral arrondissements are fine. I've been looking on French classifieds sites like pap.fr and refleximmo.com, since anglophone apartment rental agencies are geared towards tourists and therefore a bit overpriced. If anyone else has any other places I could be looking, that would be immensely helpful. Since all of you are travelers yourselves, if you know anyone in Paris who does the traditional leaving-Paris-for-the-summer and is renting out their apartment for a low price, I'd also love to get in touch with them.
Thanks very much,
Anna

Have you checked witht he school - they must surely have a housing office or recommended rental agents.

There's the option of staying at Cité Universitaire, which I did last year, but those are single rooms and not apartments, and there's an application process that favours grad students. As for finding housing, the advice that they give is more geared towards people living in Paris already who can look at newspapers and go visit apartments, which I don't have the option of doing (live in Toronto).

I wonder if you might be able to negotiate a price with an owner who rents through VRBO.

Paris Attitude has several in yourprice range

And they are good to deal with

http://www.parisattitude.com/search2.asp

I don't know how doable that is, I know people who lived in Paris for a year (either as a student or an official French-govt. intern) and they couldn't get what you want. They ended up either in a foyer, or a single room way out in an outer arrondisement.

You should look at www.lodgis.fr, it's a French agency and has some monthly and longer rentals. I thought pap.fr did, also. Also, there is a magazine for expacts that you can pick up in McDonalds and places like that in Paris (where English-speakers congregate, or Shakespeare & co) and it has ads for sublets, things like that. It's online now I think. see www.fusac.fr Aside from that, check out France d'Amerique newspaper which is a French paper published in the US and lots of folks who put ads in there have sublets and things, also.

YOu aren't in the best bargaining position, you want a short-term rental, furnished in the center of Paris for 700 euro or less a month. And you are only 19 and a student. A few months in the summer is pretty short-term, although not like a tourist, sure.

I googled 3 month Paris apartment rental and some agencies came up. One was www.paristay.com where you can type in your dates and sort by location, price etc. The cheapest seemed a little higher priced than your budget.

Good luck.

BTw, I couldn't find anything like you want in the sources I gave, there were a few around 700 euro but they were in the burbs. I think there was one in fusac around 600-700 euro in St Germain or the Marais, but it was around 12 m2.

Be aware that the long term rentals on Paris Attitude do NOT include the agency fee. So their 700 euro per month rentals will be about 500-600 euro more for a fee (75 pct of one month's rent).

You can check on the parisetudiant website forum for sublet opportunities:

http://www.parisetudiant.com/forums/list.php?9

You should have no problem finding something within your price range. Note however that 3 months is not considered a "long term rental".

Check out the New York Review of Books, and even consider putting an ad there if you think the rates are affordable.