“Every man has a natural place,” said Jean-Paul Sartre. “Mine is a sixth floor in Paris, with a view overlooking the roofs.”
Since, like most Parisians, we leave the city in high summer, we’ve decided to rent our apartment for the period of the Olympics and a week or so on either side.
So a few people will have a chance to share the experience of watching the sun rise behind the cathedral of Notre-Dame from a penthouse garden terrace in the building once the home of Sylvia Beach, publisher of Ulysses and founder of the Shakespeare and Company bookshop, where Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and visited her and her partner Adrienne Monnier.
A fifty-square-meter garden terrace runs the length of the apartment, offering unparallelled views over the city. In summer, French doors turn the terrace and salon (combination sitting and dining room) into a spacious al fresco location for early evening aperos and late-night dining. (See above)
The 100-square-metre apartment comprises a long salon, a large main bedroom, a smaller second bedroom, a large bathroom with bath and separate shower, a roomy kitchen with gas and electricity, refrigerator, freezer and dishwasher, plus clothes washing machine and drier. Full wi-fi and cable tv. There is also an elevator.
Our building from the street. (Note caviare shop, convenient for a quick re-stock.)
We’re within five-minutes’ walk of the Luxembourg Gardens and the cafes and shops of St Germain des Prés district. Ten minutes brings you to the Seine and Pont Neuf. Metro and bus service are excellent, and there are ample Vel’lib bicycle racks in a city that increasingly emphasizes non-auto transport. Security is state-of-the-art, with coded entry, and a lobby with videophone access.
Terrance Gelenter of Paris Through Expatriate Eyes has the listing. Anyone interested can reach him via https://terrance-paris.com/