Paris apartment on the southern side of the city

By staying in an apartment for our week in Paris, my son and I saved a whole bunch of money! Compare the approximately $880 a week we spent to a couple of hundred dollars a night in a hotel — I’ll take an apartment anytime. Our stay was in April ’06. (My wife and I stayed in the apartment for two weeks a couple of years ago.)

We rented the apartment from Dr. Selim Morcos (rue 14 Vasco de Gama, 15th Arrondissement, 75015 Paris, FRANCE. . . Contact Dr. Morcos at 28204 Kenton Lane, Santa Clarita, CA 91350; phone/fax 661/296-1034 or visit www.parisaprts.com).

It’s on the southern side of the city, almost a direct line 1½ miles south of the Eiffel Tower, five minutes away by Métro. The apartment is one block from Lourmel station, which is one stop from the end of Métro line No. 8 (in the Balard direction).

The apartment, which sleeps six, has a fully equipped kitchen, a washer and dryer, cable TV (CNN, BBC) and a high-speed Internet connection. It’s also just around the corner from an Internet café.

The neighborhood is neat. It’s a residential area with cafés, restaurants, bakeries, a butcher shop, fish market, wine shop, cheese shop and so on. A Hertz car rental office and a supermarket are attached to the garden of the apartment building. Twice a week, there is a street market with fresh produce, meat, fish, bread, clothing, etc., in sidewalk stalls.

GEORGE N. GIANOPULOS

Fresno, CA