A reminder of our eco-friendly side

OK, It's not like we're green warriors for Gaia or something, but we do think it's every citizen's duty to make an effort to help save the planet. In fact the very fact that I'm even writing a sentence including the words "save the planet" is - in my opinion - pretty damn frightening.

When we started planning the apartment, we had this great idea about doing the whole thing 100% organic, using organic paint, the whole shebang. When we checked the prices against our budget, it became very obvious very quickly that doing so would not be 100% possible.

And so, as in life, we made some compromises. Not too many, but a few. The efforts we have made (and continue to make) can be made by everyone. They don't take any time. They costs almost exactly the same amount. Here's how our apartment tries to be eco-friendly.

100% green electricity. All the apartment's energy is 100% ecological. I took a while fro France to have alternatives the the state-run EDF (which is highly invested in nuclear power) and as soon as we were able to change, we did. Poweo is a new operator with various offers available. In stead of going for their cheapest rate, we've chosen Poweo Planète which uses certified 100% green electricity from biomass, solar and hydraulic plants. Obviously this is not an excuse for turning the heating up and opening all the windows, but it's an important step. As 100% green electricity costs the same as the standard offer in France, and there's not costs for moving to a different company, I don't understand why everyone hasn't changed over.

Heating. We've mentioned our revolutionary 'plasma technology' radiator/mirror before here. It uses 30% less electricity (and saves quite a bit of space too). The manufacturer is Verelec. Oh, and we've changed all the windows in the apartment too for brand new double glazing.

Cooling. Some people ask us if we have air conditioning. We don't, and we won't. It's a terrible waster of energy and frankly not necessary in a temperate climate such as mainland Europe. The apartment is in a stone building and overlooks a courtyard that protected from the sun. Basically, the place cools itself, and if you're hot try opening a window. Magic.

Cleaning. If you've stayed with us, you'll have noticed that the cleaning products we supply for tidying up the apartment before you leave are all eco-friendly (erm, apart from a bit of bleach that we use for occasional cleaning jobs). These generally come from Monoprix or our local organic supermarket Emo.

Bedding and towels. Our quilt and pillows by Dodo are made from organic cotton and contain no feathers. Our towels are by Santens and partly made from bamboo fibre, a renewable source that is softer and absorbs more water. They've also just started an organic range that we'll be looking into.

And by the way, we wash all linen at 60°C using eco-friendly products. My current favourite is this humungous sachet from Rainett that has reduced packaging and lasts for 30 machines! Also good for building up my biceps when carrying it home ;-)

Coffee, milk, wine, cakey... We leave you coffee, tea and milk in the apartment as well as a couple of cakes so you don't have to get up the first morning and wander blindly round the area trying to find breakfast (although the following mornings you'll probably enjoy doing so!). Our coffee is organic and usually fairtrade. Our tea is... tea. Not sure why I haven't got round to getting organic. Must put that on my list. The milk is organic, and so are the cakes (usually). The wine is made from organically-grown grapes.

Paper. It goes without saying that we only use recycled paper. I've recently found this great paper called Rey EcoNautre which has a natural ivory colour and is produced in France (to limit transport) using wood from responsibly managed forests. The factory uses 85% eco-friendly biomass energy and no chemical are used in the process. We even use a staple-free stapler when attaching pages together. Less metal pollution!

And talking of paper, the toilet paper we provide is also 100% recycled.

The rest. Our eco-friendly habits extend outside the apartment. We travel everywhere in the city on our bikes, so no carbon dioxide emissions.We're vegetarians, which is probably the single most important thing you can do for the environment at the moment. We have eco-friendly power at home too. We buy carbon credits when we have to fly abroad. For example, I was horrified to learn that a short return flight from Paris to Seville generates 90% of the carbon dioxide that the planet can absorb annually for one person. Imagine how much a transatlantic flight must produce.

We encourage you - if you have to take a taxi - to use an eco-friendly taxi service from the airport (and to be clear, we don't earn a commission or anything like that) and can explain how to use public transport as an alternative (dead simple)...

We're not trying to boast, it's not a gimmick, and we don't feel we're doing anything extraordinary. We've just made small choices that everyone can make, and we believe that every little bit helps make a difference. We never tried to pitch the apartment as some sort of saintly venture, but hopefully people appreciate the trouble we've taken and perhaps will be spurred into making eco-friendly choices themselves.

Now the Paris breakfast lasts all day long

Only the French could come up with the idea of a restaurant that only serves breakfast, but does it all day long. And frankly, what a great idea it it!

Twinkie Breakfasts (notice the plural) has taken root in what used to be a peepshow on rue Saint Denis. Apparently sex doesn't sell like it used to, or perhaps breakfast is the new sex? Anyway, the rue Saint Denis is enjoying a bit of a renaissance at the moment, with a couple of new organic places, and now Twinkie Breakfast. I decided to drop in and take a few photos.


I really like the simplicity of the décor. Beamed ceiling, bare stone walls, white and wood furniture. The kitchen's behind glass in a far corner, and the restaurant also sells a few basic American produce like maple syrup and marshmallows.


The staff are all really friendly, apart from one man who looks a lot like THE BOSS and seems annoyed ALL THE TIME. Not the that the customers are bothered: the place gets very full on weekends (haven't tried it out during the week yet) with a local crowd of upwardly mobile hipsters.

I really like the sense of humour they've applied to the window displays, a sort of ragtag collection of silly stuff that raises a smile.


So, what do they actually serve? Well, apart from the bagels and club sandwiches, you have the choice between seven different breakfasts costing between 12 and 19€ ; French, English and American breakfastss are the basics, but there are more daring choices like Arouat Boker ('breakfast' in Hebrew - thanks Sharon!) which includes a hot drink of your choice, freshly squeezed fruit juice, two fried or scrambled eggs, salad (cucumber, tomato, peppers, tuna, olives, goats cheese), fresh fruit salad, a selection of breads and butter, jam, honey and Nutella to put on them. Wow! That sounds like on hell of a copious breakfast.

There's also a gluten and lactose free breakfast, which is pretty unusual for Paris (where even a vegetarian option is often hard to find). The Twinkie crew is also careful to mention that all the eggs used are organic.

Could be useful if you wake up late and have a breakfast craving. If if you're tired from shopping and have a breakfast craving. In any case, it's good to see the rather ropey rue Saint Denis taking a step up.


Twinkie Breakfasts is at 167 rue Saint Denis, just 5 minutes from the Great Apartment. They're open from 9am until about 7pm (nope, no breakfast for dinner as yet). The walking map's below. And if you see THE BOSS there, give him a loving smile... and hope he doesn't bite you.

**UPDATE** We ate there this weekend, and the place was packed (table of 17 for a girly birthday!). Service was a bit wonky:

- the various elements of the breakfast were all served separately, several minutes apart
- my beer didn't turn up, then when I asked for it they served me the wrong one
- the lactose-free breakfast came with butter instead of the margarine marked on the menu
- the orange juice was completely forgotten
- to say sorry they gave us the beer free, but got the amount wrong and tried to charge us 5 euros too much!

However, the staff are all super nice and down to earth, the food was good and that guy that scowls turns out to be THE COOK rather than THE BOSS - and he even let slip the odd smile or two!

Selling the Great Apartment

No, we're not selling the Great Apartment, but we are trying to sell the Great Apartment. Got it?

What I mean is, when we first bought, renovated and starting renting the apartment, we never really thought about how people would find it on the web, and choose us rather than one of the thousands of other places available in Paris. We did know that we wanted to do something different from the hundreds of apartments we had seen with creaky sofabeds, pine furniture and rank kitchens. And we also thought that the blog would bring people our way a bit.

However, we soon realised that being different from the rest was simply not enough. There are so many apartments and so many agencies out there, that the chances of someone coming across our site are small. I have the same problem when trying to find a decent independently-run apartment when I go abroad; there's just so much 'noise' from the agencies that you can't find them. It's frustrating.

This is why we put our apartments on Flipkey. Flipkey is the sister site of TripAdvisor, probably the most trusted way to find a decent hotel anywhere in the world. The site lists only apartments and allows past guests to review them so that others can make an informed choice.

Of course the problem of too much choice applies here too: if you do a search for - say - a Paris apartment for a week in September, there are 458 apartments listed! It's important to be at the top of that list so as not to get completely lost.

And this is where our guests can help out. The apartment's position on the page is dictated by the quality of the listing (number of photos, etc.), the number of reviews and the ratings given. Which is why you'll probably receive an e-mail from Flipkey after your stay, asking for you to write a few lines about the Great Apartment.

A mailout via the Flipkey site last week got us quite a few reviews for Great Apartment and the Canal Apartment, helping the latter to get to 14th place (still on the first page, quite a feat with 458 apartments on offer) and the former to 3rd place! We were so pleased! And grateful!

And I can't emphasize enough: writing a review on Flipkey is probably the nicest thing you can do for us. It helps people really know what the apartment is like, helps us pick up on anything that could be improved (I've already changed a couple of things at the apartment thanks to reviews) and makes sure that people can find us on the site. And of course, that helps us to keep the Great Apartment a going concern and help people have an unforgettable stay in Paris.

Here's what the first page of Flipkey looked like today:

Of course our position on the page will change all the time. We only show up if the apartment is available for the dates requested (logical), and the people above and below us will also be getting more reviews, so it's an ongoing process. The Canal Apartment is probably 14th because it's new and hasn't got as many reviews (although I'll be reminding people soon to help us out!) but having both apartments on the first page, even for a while, is really encouraging, and we're super grateful, especially as there are loads of nice things being said!

We've also integrated a Flipkey widget in the right-hand column of our site. That way, people can click and read what people have to say about us. I think it's quite a useful tool for people.

Andf you want to check out our full Flipkey pages, here they are:

The Great Apartment -
www.flipkey.com/properties/view/121710 or http://goo.gl/soJB

The Canal Apartment -
www.flipkey.com/properties/view/175176 or http://goo.gl/jKeM

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to write a review. It's very much appreciated.

La note rouge, a rather smart new wine shop two seconds from the Great Apartment!

It's my opinion that French wine and French cheese is reason enough to live in France. They are probably why I've never considered going back to live in England. It's just inconceivable. Imagine my joy then when I came across a brand new wine store at the end of our street, just next to Zine Fashion Store. Give a big welcoming 'glug' to La Note Rouge!

As you can see, it's in a former Bonneterie (in fact, we even showed you the old store-front in our article explaining Bonneteries here). Three young men have pooled their skills to create a wine shop with a difference...

Firstly, they've chosen a modern, minimalist style that's radically different from most wine shops that have rows and rows and rows and rows and rows and rows of bottles. Of course, quantity does not mean quality, and La Note Rouge's hand-picked selection means that you're not left bewildered.

The first room of the shop is mainly for reds, with a second room out back for whites. There are touchscreens in both that allow you to browse the catalogue in various ways: you can choose your wine by region, taste, price, by the food that will accompany it... the screen will guide you, and wines can also be rated and commented on by anyone visiting the website, giving the whole thing an interactive quality. Very cool. Of course, you can always ask the guys for a little help too, and with 75% of the stock under 20€, you should be able to find something in your price range.

They also have their own blog, a Facebook page, tasting sessions with the wine producers themselves and soon a proper tasting room that is reached via the courtyard, with large sofa, flatscreen TV... All very modern, web 2.0 etc. And they're not frightened to shake things up a little: when I went, the background music was Guns & Roses! Yep, these guys are different, and extremely personable to boot. Check them out!

La Note Rouge is at 212 rue St Martin, and you'd have to be extremely short sighted not to see it when leaving the apartment (turn right, then left and you're there). They are also on our map of all things uber-cool near the apartment here: www.tinyurl.com/nearthegreatapartment

The Jewish Art and History Museum just near the Great Apartment Paris

I'm slightly ashamed to say that since its opening (in 1998!), I hadn't been to the Jewish Art and History Museum before this weekend. Finally, the current temporary exhibition spurred me to visit. It's about about the wealthy and philanthropic Camondo family that collected art up until the Second World War, when the last remaining members were deported and killed. From Constantinople to Paris, over three generations, they built up a banking empire of extraordinary power and used their wealth for good.

It's an exceptional story and the exhibition tells it well (more about it on the Museum's official site here). Exhibition ends 7th March 2010.

The building housing the museum is called the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan, and dates from 1650, making it an impressive building in itself. It also backs onto the great Jardin Anne Frank that we've mentioned before (here). There's lots of info about the history of the building here, for example the fact that it used to be town hall of the seventh district of Paris back in 1795 (whereas the area is now the 3rd arrondissement), and that the architecture is "one of the finest Parisian examples of the serenely classical style known as Atticism". The courtyard is certainly imposing...

Photo by Flickr user fredpanassac used under cc licence,

although I did change the colours a bit because it was all green.

Although I can't say anything about the permanent collection (as we didn't see it) but this is another cultural establishment just on your doorstep if you're staying at the Great Apartment. It also happens to be just around the corner from delicious cupcake and cheesecake shop Berko, which is worth stopping by at on the way out.



The official site for the Jewish Art and History Museum can be found here. They're open every day of the week except Saturdays from 11am - 6pm (opens 10am Sundays). Last ticket at 5pm.