Paris Apts.- Roaches!
 

We have often thought about renting an apartment in Paris rather than staying in a hotel. However, my niece just returned and said the apartment they rented looked really good in pictures and seemed OK when they checked in. However, when she got up during the night and turned on a light HUNDREDS of roaches ran for cover!. They had to buy traps and sprays and were very upset when they couldn't get any satisfaction from the rental agent. Their whole visit was unpleasant because of this infestation. Is this typical of Paris apts. or were they just in a bad neighborhood?

I should think if it were typical of Paris apartments there would be reams and reams of posts on this and other travel boards about it. Never having read such a post before, I'm going to assume that it's an unlikely occurrence.

Agree w/ above. I've been reading this board for years (including thousands of posts about Paris apartments)and this is the first time I've EVER heard of this situation. For the record, what was the agency and the specific apt.??

Sorry for your niece's experience but I have never read nor heard a friend complain of roaches.

It would be helpful if you posted the agency and location of the apartment, and what she paid, otherwise that info isn't going to be of much use to many people. I imagine if you book a really cheap apt. in Paris, you can get a not-so-nice place pretty easily.

IN any case, I've never seen a roach in France, I thought maybe they didn't have the climate for it. I might add I stayed one summer in a pretty grungy dorm at Cite Universitaire, and even there I never saw one (although there were certainly plumbing and dirt problems).

Thanks, eveyone. I feel better about possibly renting in Paris. I'm sorry I don't know the agency or exact location but I'll be sure and check with my niece before I make any committments.

Wags, when you check with your niece, please come back and let us know. That's the nice thing about these boards. ((b))

wags, please do that, I know from past postings Christina has stayed many times in Paris and would have heard of infestation. Maybe it's something else. other than a roach. I rember a week-end in Wales as a guest of London Friends and I screamed and jumped on my chair as what I thought was a genetically altered mosquito, that was the size of a bat. after my friend's had a good laugh, they explained this common flying thing, doesn't bite and explained to the other Brits that I thought it was a biting stateside winged thing.

I've rented nine different apartments in Paris, in locations all over the city. I have never seen one bug, even with open windows and no screens. I'd be very interested to hear about the location of these roaches and I don't think this is the norm.

There certainly are cockroaches in Paris, and I say this with complete certainty because I lived in a building that was infested with them! (I won't go into the gory details here though.)

They are not particularly common but they do exist (small ones are called "blattes", I believe, and the larger are "cafards"), and there are exterminator services to deal with them, along with sprays and poisons sold in most supermarkets.

It's not a huge problem though, and not something that people should start worrying about. As St Cirq says, if it was really a major problem, there would have been plenty of posts about it before now.

Ick ick ick!!! Thank goodness, the only times I have ever seen roaches or roach-like creatures was in Jamaica and they were not in my house!
Patrick rents in LOndon and Paris every year and he would have mentioned it if there were ever roaches , I think it is only typical there as it would be here, in a dirty uncared for flat.

I find it amusing that anyone would think that roaches only inhabit "bad neighborhoods."

true, singletail, they hop aboard shopping bags( I know that as a fact) BUT a good landlord doesn't allow them to stay or move next door, or floor because they will retiurn once the smell has left so all apartments and ajoining buildings must be treated.

I didn't think insects still existed in Europe; isn't that why they don't have window screens?

Last October we rented an apt from Hell and we had blattes.

blattes? Is that french for creepy critters?

I hate to let everyone know this most most citry apartment houses that have been standing for a substanital amount of time have roaches in them. However, if the management is diligent and apartment owners clean and tidy they can be kept under control (that is in basements, storage areas, closed walls, etc). If you ever see one in an apartment its a clear sign of neglect in regular extermination procedures.

I hate to shatter everyone's illusion that there couldn't possibly be roaches in the City of Light, but, yes, I'm afraid there are. In 1996, while studying French in Paris, I stayed for 3 mos. in the 15th arr. Ave. Felix Faure, with a lady in a 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment, with a big kitchen and lovely rooms that looked out on the Eiffel Tower. The lady I stayed with, as nice as she was, did not like to do dishes at night, only during the morning. One night, I got up to get some water, and turned on the light in the kitchen, and was horrified to see dozens of black roaches skittering around for cover in the light-I don't know how many- I was so freaked that I turned off the light and left immediately.

Needless to say, that sort of ruined things for me for the rest of my stay there, no matter how clean and nice the apartment otherwise appeared. So ends my little story. Yes, roaches are indeed present in Paris, and given my experience, I would imagine it is not only possible, but quite likely they could be found in serviced vacation apartments.

My daughter lives in what used to be called Spanish Harlem in NYC (122nd & Park) and the only roach she's seen since she moved in last August was one that "hitched" a ride in a furniture box from Ikea! Yep -- you can expect them, but they can be controlled by a vigilent landlord! (and neat tenants)

I saw my first cockroach in Paris when I was 15 (also my first prostitute and first street person; previously, I had lived a rather sheltered life).

It was at a fleabag hotel in the 9eme. Same type of situation--turned on the light and <i>les cafards</i> scurried for every crevice and drain. Seemed like there were hundreds of them.

Have never seen one anywhere in Paris since.

Hi NYTraveler: Toast Chillers! I'm still laughing over that one- it must be an East Coast thing!

blattes: the noise they make when one stomps on them?

The answer is maybe don't turn on the lights in the middle of the night! Hundreds of them - horrors! I live in South Florida, and we do have our share - but ours are called &quot;Palmetto Bugs&quot; and they are huge. Extermination services are big business here - everyone has monthly service. Sounds like some of those Paris apartments need these services!

Sue4: Rather than not turning on the lights they kept them on all night to deter the little &quot;buggers&quot; from coming out.

ChatNoir and Scarlett, when I first arrived in France I got a bit mixed up between blattes (cockroaches) and blettes (a kind of vegetable). Got most frustrated until I discovered I'd been explaining to my colleagues that my apartment was infested with Swiss chard :d

I know this is old, but I just found it and can't resist saying that at least hanl didn't try to order a side of cockroaches in a restaurant!

Scarlett, didn't you also find a cockroach in your salad at Spago's in Las Vegas recently? Eeeeek!

Yes, as Scarlett mentioned, I've rented for years in London and also in Paris as well as other places. No, I've not seen a roach ever in any of those apartments. But as for my own home in Naples, Florida -- that's another thing, except we call them Palmetto bugs here, and all the spraying in the world won't guarantee that from time to time you're not going to spot one.

Maybe it was wishful thinking, but my mother always says there was a world of difference between a kitchen roach and a Palmetto roach. According to her, the former are a sign of an dirty environment, the latter a sign that one lives in the Deep South. Needless to say, we sometimes saw a Palmetto, but NEVER a kitchen roach! LOL

We saw neither creature during our Paris apartment stay. But I'm in nytraveler's camp - I'll bet they were hiding in the walls!

From Scarlett-&quot;Thank goodness, the only times I have ever seen roaches or roach-like creatures was in Jamaica and they were not in my house!&quot;
Now, wait a minute, Scarlett. I thought you were a Florida person. You must live in a hermetically sealed condo down here.
Patrick, we don't call them palmetto bugs until they reach 4&quot; long. Then we pretend they just wandered in from outside. The little German guys come with the territory. Orkin comes with great regularity and we are still not winning the war.
I remember my first turn-on-the-light experience. Thought I'd have a heart attack. But now I am used to it. Better than the scorpions in the house in Arizona.

I have seen a few roaches in Europe (France and Switzerland). They were always tiny, about 1 inch or so and brown colored. I don't like roaches (of course) but these are not that bad compared to the ones you see in Asia, 2-3 inches big, shiny black and I've even seen them fly (only once or twice. They usally don't, fortunately)! That's frigtening. Do the big ones in Florida fly?

Back in '45 when I was in a Naval Hospital stateside after being evacuated, we had to leave our ward one night because &quot;the bug man&quot; was coming to pay it a visit.

Next morning we saw why. A mound of cockroaches -- enough to fill a strawberry basket -- was swept up just from within the ward's small galley.

And we thought the place was &quot;clean&quot; before that night. Just went to show that any place can harbor the little brown bugs, providing conditions are right. The bugs, I was told, were looking for water, bread crumbs dropped on the floor, and warmth. We provided all three -- so we had &quot;night visitors.&quot; Same goes for Paris; you provide the conditions...and they will come.

Hi all,

Roaches were here before the dinosaurs. They will be here long after humanity has disappeared.

They don't eat much. They are cleaner than flies. They don't make a lot of noise late at night.

We should all learn to live with them.

Gregor Samsa

No Ira, they will have to pry my cold, dead fingers off my Orkin contract before I will give in!

Manatees are prehistoric animals that should be preserved. Roaches are prehistoric animals that should be made extinct. The sooner the better!

Left Bank, flea-bag hotel in my youth... plenty of roaches there. Hawaii has huge roaches that FLY. They also eat the glue off book spines. That's why you don't get rid of the friendly gecko that crept into your place....My first apartment in North Hollywood, CA, tons of the little buggers, but only discovered AFTER we'd moved in and the insecticide had worn off......Wags, do post the place so we can avoid it. Patrick, I'm with you vas a vis the quest for roach extinction.

kappa: Yes, the ones in Florida fly - ewww.

janeg: When I was living in South Florida we had the monthly exterminator visit and after every visit we'd find a dead scorpion or two. I don't think you've escaped them!

Hostess twinkies and Cher along with roaches will survive humanity

Ugh, what an awful story! I can sympathize as we were staying at the Marriott Palm Desert (CA) a few years back with my inlaws and had to change rooms 2xs because of a roach infestation, not just a few roaches but 10-15 whenever we turned the lights on, and that's a very posh resort. I will never, ever return!!!!

I take it that they don't teach Kafka anymore.

This is not exactly on point, but it's interesting and worth reading. It's a NY Times article with some horror stories re the dangers of persticides. I wish I could say the stories are surprising. The article will no longer be accessible for free after a few days. You need to register (free) to use this link to get to the article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/01/ny...esticides.html