Apartment Hunting Blog - rue Agathoise

This is a new apartment that Sebastien was working with the owner to start managing. The owner and his girlfriend were living there currently, but were getting ready to move to Paris. Instead of selling, they were going to rent it, fully furnished including utilities, like his other short-term apartments. They were just starting all of this, so they didn't even have exactly what the price would be yet although he had an idea based on the other apartments that he manages. This one was located just off the street we are living on now, but further away from Centre Ville (about 2-3 minute is all though). It is on a quiet side street and the owners were there on a Sunday afternoon and let us see it.

The outside was really nice ... old-style with the pastel (indigo blue) shutters that are prevalent in the city. The brick was more of a beige-ish color than red like many of the buildings. The apartment was on the 1st floor (so 1 floor up from the ground floor) and so it is the one with the balcony above the front door.

As we walked in, we were really impressed .. it was a really great apartment! One of the things about this apartment was that the furniture that was there would stay, and it was actually the owners furniture, so better quality than what you would shove into an apartment that you were just furnishing directly as a rental unit. The living room was a bit small and there as no actual dining room, although there was room that we could put a small table in there. Nice windows and a tiny balcony .. not big enough for a table and chairs but definitely bit enough for flowers and herbs.

The kitchen is pretty open into the living room/dining area and was nicely equipped with a gas stove top, dishwasher, built-in fridge (nice sized), oven, and microwave. There was also really good use of space with the cabinets. The used the bar as the eating area it seems, since there really wasn't a table in the dining room area, although there was some space for a little table.

The master bedroom was again, pretty small (the whole apartment was only about 650 square feet) but one entire wall had built-ins for clothes and the bed was one of the beds where the entire mattress comes up and there is storage underneath. We had been looking at beds with storage underneath to maximize space, although we prefer those with drawers since it makes it easier to get to. However, if you use the under-mattress space for things that you don't need all that often, like blankets or seasonal clothes, then it actually is ideal. It also is great in rooms where you really don't have enough room on either side of the bed to open the drawers :-). There was one bathroom only, although it was quite nice. Off the edge of the master was a long thin "hallway" like room, which had a the washing machine (along with areas to hang the clothes to dry) and bonus (not found in many European apartments in the center of the city) ... a second toilet!

Off the master bedroom was a little balcony that overlooked the courtyard, where they had setup a little beach-type chair.

The guest room left a bit to be desired, and was really the low point of the apartment, which up to this point was really hitting on almost all points. It had a futon but that was really all that would have fit in that room.

Another bonus for this apartment was that there was private parking, although it wasn't in the same building. The owners had 2 different parking spaces that they owned in different buildings on the same street. This is somewhat common .. you'll have someone who will buy an apartment with parking but then they won't need it, so they will either rent it or sell it.