Paris - rue de la Harpe apartment
 

Has anyone stayed in Rent Paris' studio in Rue de La Harpe?. Just wondering if it's quiet and e a safe area...<BR>we're going in late September

Rue de la Harpe is noisy area. I'm not sure how long the restaurants on that street and others surrounding it stay open but there's lots of activity in that section. I'm sure it's safe enough - I've been through there at night (although not late) and felt safe, probably because of all the people walking around and eating. I think you'd be happier in a quieter neighborhood.<BR><BR>Adrienne<BR>

I have stayed in hotels nearby. It is definitely a safe and convenient location. The street is lined with shops, but is limited in terms of traffic, so fairly quiet for central Paris.<BR><BR>For an actual &quot;look&quot; at an address, click on Paris and the &quot;Photos of cities&quot; option at: http://www.pagesjaunes.fr/pj.cgi?lang=en<BR><BR>You will get a map and a photo of the building, and can then click on arrows to &quot;walk&quot; up and down the street, around the corner, etc.<BR><BR><BR><BR>

Safe, yes. Quiet, probably not.

I agree, that is probably one of the noisest streets in Paris. It's a small street near the Seine/St Michel just teeming with tourists, cheap food places, a McDonalds at the end (which generates a lot of traffic and trash and people around), etc. It's not very attractive, either, of course. <BR><BR>It's safe enough, I guess, in one sense, but I suspect there may be a lot of pickpockets around there and just general riff-raff. A lot of transients hang around there and in the park at the end that abuts the Cluny museum in front of McDonalds.

Have not spent any significant time on this particular street, so I defer to St. Cirq and Christina, who both know Paris quite well. (Lack of traffic clearly does not mean lack of noise in some instances!)

thanks for all your comments - you've helped me make up my mind to look elsewhere.

Clbc,

I actually rented an apartment on Rue de la Harpe! I wonder if it's possible that it could be the same place! Yes, it is noisy and crowded. I found there to be a mix of tourists and a lot of students. I was there last October for 4 nights. We paid a lot for this apartment (it was supposed to be a luxury apartment similiar to a 4 or 5 star hotel, which it was not).

I'll post a little of our experience so hopefully it'll help someone else who is thinking about renting opposed to staying in a hotel. We are in our 40's and thought renting an apartment would be a great experience. Given our experience, we would not do it again. We had a lot of problems with the apartment itself. Someone in the USA actually owns this apartment and they've hired people in Paris to be caretakers. The problem is, they live no where near the apartment so it would take them 45 minutes to an hour to show up. If you do rent make sure you ask if the caretakers live there or closeby! On the day we arrived the lock to get into the building broke. I was locked outside and my husband was locked inside for 6 hours! It took that long to get the caretaker back to the apartment and then we had to wait for a locksmith. No one could get in or out of that building for 6 hours! The next night we had a friend stay over and wanted to use the pullout sofa which was broken. Again, at 11:30pm we had to get the caretaker to come and figure out what was wrong. Finally at 2am it was fixed.

Granted, these things are out of the ordinary and would likely never happen to anyone. The lock situation caused us to lose a good part of one day which is precious when you're on vacation. Also this would never have happened had we stayed in a hotel. If we were to rent again I would make sure that a landlord or caretaker was closeby in case of any unforseen issues.