We spent a week at the end of May in the Ecoles apartment. The apartment is on the 5th floor (US 6th floor) of a 17th century building, with views out over the rooftops towards Notre Dame with Sacre Coeur in the distance. The views are wonderful. With our binoculars we could see people on the steps of Sacre Coeur.

The main area of the apartment, the living room and kitchen, is light and spacious. There are windows along two sides of this room. The kitchen is very modern and well equipped (there were not enough lids for the pots during our stay, but they will fix this).

The two bedrooms are small and the master has no windows, but its door is across from a large window, so you get natural light. However the bed is in an alcove and is against the wall, so one person has to climb down to the bottom of the bed to get out. The bathroom is very modern with a great tub and shower.

The balcony off the living room is long and narrow. Even though there are a table and chairs on it, I don't see how anyone could be comfortable sitting out there (but then, I am afraid of heights). But with the two sets of French doors open to the balcony, you feel like you are at the top of Paris!

The building is historic but the elevator is modern and worked well (as to be expected, it is small - fits 3 people). Outside the building door is a great cafe. Around the corner and down one block is the Metro. A Monoprix supermarket is across the street and a good selection of small food shops (cheese shop, fruit and vegetable) is a few blocks away at Place Maubert. The excellent Eric Kayser bakery (for bread) is on Rue Monge, off Place Maubert. The Luxembourg Gardens are a few blocks away, as is Notre Dame and the River Seine in the other direction. A great location in the Latin Quarter (in the 5th).

The only problem that we had was the strong fragrances on the sheets. Now if you use Bounce or fabric softener on your sheets at home, you will not notice what we are talking about. We are both sensitive to strong chemical fragrances, so we noticed. The agency offered to rewash the sheets for us, but we did this ourselves.

I recommend this apartment, but for two people it is expensive. It has two bedrooms and a foldout couch, so can sleep up to six.

I have booked an apartment in Paris with this agency for our summer 2009 trip. We have not stayed there yet, but I wanted to comment on how good the agency was to work with through the booking process. They answered my many questions, helped me make my decision and even sent me information on vegetarian restaurants in Paris. Payment was easy - mailed a check to their US office. They have local staff in Paris who will check us into the apartment when we arrive.