Cate's Place
Information
Address and phone
Address and Phone
49, rue Orfila
75020 Paris
A one minute walk from metro stop Gambetta at Place Gambetta, line 3, in the heart of the 20th arrondissement, the birthplace of Maurice Chevallier.
What It’s Like
Garden-level apartment with its own gated entrance, set back off the quiet street of rue Orfila, up a leafy walkway. Two minutes from Place Gambetta, the heart of the 20th arrondissment, and just off the commercially bustling Rue des Pyrenees. Great bakery, fine cheese shop, and fresh produce minutes from your door. Farmers’ markets on neighboring streets Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The studio is three minutes walk to Père Lachaise, the most famous garden cemetery in Paris, and a fifteen-minute bus ride to the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, and Le Marais. Or, on a sunny day, make the 20 minute walk down the hill to Le Bastille or Place des Vosges.
The studio has a double futon loft-bed, accessible by stairs; sitting area / living room with a double futon sofa and a French country-style window with shutters; separate kitchen with another window. Both windows, southern-facing, look out onto a small garden patch and pathway. Complete bath. High-ceilings. Modestly but tastefully decorated. Small library of Parisian guide-books and easy reading material. Linen, towels, all kitchen items provided.
A charming and quiet retreat in an ‘undiscovered’ corner of Paris.
Apartment Fees
The apartment fees for double occupancy* are as follows:
$68 day
$425 week
$1425 month
Utilities and phone—$150/month or prorated based on the length of your stay at $5 a day. Reservation deposit—50% of your total rental fee (including utilities) will be required to hold a date. If you should need to cancel your stay, all but $50 of your deposit will be returned if the apartment can be re-booked. The remainder of your rent will be due one month before your arrival. Date changes can be accommodated depending on availability. Security and key deposit—$200. Your deposit must be sent in a separate check. After your stay, the on-site manager will check the apartment for damage, missing items and general cleanliness. If everything is in order, your check will be mailed back to you. At the end of your stay, leave 5 Euros with your bed linen laundry. * $15 per night per person over two.
Your Arrival
Cate’s apartment manager, Roy, is an expat classic—an American poet in Paris. Roy is also an inline-skate champion, antique dealer, an amateur paleontologist, and a bit of a handy-man.
You should plan to take possession of the apartment between noon and 2:30 PM unless otherwise specified. (Unless previous arrangements have been made for a late departure, you should plan to leave by 11:00 AM.) Let Cate know your approximate arrival time before you leave the US. She’ll pass the word on to Roy who will meet you at the apartment, give you the keys, and an orientation to the studio and the neighborhood.
How to Get to Cate’s Place
If you want to treat yourself, email a few days ahead of your arrival for a group taxi pick-up from the airport. They will deposit you right at the door for 120FF (about $20) for one and 89FF apiece for two: Airport Shuttle, 01.45.38.55.72 telephone, or 01.43.21.35.67 fax, or ashuttle@club-internet.fr for email. They speak English.
The apartment is also reachable via the Metro if you want the budget version:
-- From Roissy Charles De Gaulle, take the free airport shuttle (from door #28) to the RER station and buy an RER ticket to Gare du Nord. Then transfer from the RER to the local subway system called the Metro (short for Metropolitan). From the Gare du Nord station you will take Metro line 4 in the direction of Porte d’Orleans and transfer at Sebastopol to line 3 going in the direction of Gallieni. Your stop is Gambetta—which exits you right at Place Gambetta.
-- From Orly—take the Orly bus to Denfert Rochereau and from there transfer underground to the Metro and get off at Gambetta.
You can also take a cab from the airport; it will cost you around $45.
FYI: there is a taxi stand, and many bus lines as well as the metro, all right at Place Gambetta.
Metro Ticket Tips
If you are staying a week, you might want to consider buying a Hebdomadaire (this means, literally, “weekly”): this is a pass good for an entire week, Monday through Sunday, on all metro lines and busses within Paris proper. You indicate, for different prices, which “zones” of Paris you want your pass to include. Central Paris is zones 1 and 2. If you will be traveling a lot, this will save you money, even if you arrive in the middle of the week.
If you want to buy a weekly ticket, you’ll need to bring with you (or take while you’re there in one of those quick photo booths) a small black and white photo. The first time you buy this type of pass, the ticket attendant will give you a plastic folder with your ID photo attached. Your Hebdomadaire will be dated and will be the same size as a regular metro ticket. The difference is that you slip it in and out of its little plastic pocket and use it the whole week.
Or, buy a “carnet”—a bundle of ten tickets together. This will save you a buck or two over buying the tickets individually. A carnet is 48F and individual tickets cost 8F. (I’ll have to check on the price in Euros next time I’m in Paris.)
Neighbor Etiquette
Cate’s Place is like a little house and is part of what the French call a “copropriété” – or co-ownership cooperative. It is much like buying into a condominium complex. All of us around the pathway maintain common spaces—the pathway, the mailbox area, lights etc.— and keep our areas clean in order to be considered good neighbors. Always feel free to be friendly with the other neighbors (some of them even speak English), and tell them you are a friend of Cate’s staying in her studio.
Keys
When you meet Roy, he will give you a set of keys for the studio and tell you the security code for the door. If you lose them, be sure to give Roy a call and he can get you a second set and help you get back into the studio.
Food and Supplies
Please consider mi casa su casa. This carries some responsibilities with it. You’ll probably find some food stuffs in the cupboards. Please feel free to add to or use these but re-supply anything you use up and don’t leave any food that will spoil.
You are responsible for buying toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies, or whatever else you need during your stay.
Linen
The standard linen allotment is one set of double-bed sheets, two pillow cases, two large bath towels, two hand towels and one bathmat. If you need to use other than this allotment, please let Roy know. An additional linen fee may be charged.
Laundry
At the end of your stay, it is difficult to leave clean linen. So just put your dirty linen (if you have a wet towel though, please hang it somewhere -- don’t put it in with the other laundry) and 5 Euros in a big bag and Roy will pick it up when he closes up the apartment after your stay. If you’ve used more than the standard linen allotment (a second set of sheets or towels, for example), you should leave an additional 10 Euros for a second load of laundry. This fee pays for the machine, soap, and the time it takes for Roy to get your laundry back in service.
There is an automated laundromat two storefronts down from the studio. If you need to do your own laundry mid-way through your stay, don’t be shy. All the machines have good signage and it might even present an opportunity to try out your French. Folks in the laundromat are generally very friendly..
Garbage
The garbage cans are just at the foot of the stairs before the mailboxes. Just put your garbage in a neatly-closed plastic bag and put it in the large can. Note that there are numerous green cubicles for recycling bottles. Please be a good citizen and put recyclables in the proper containers.
Storage
There is a small plastic armoire/closet and a wooden cabinet in the living room for storage of your clothing or miscellany. There is also a small storage compartment on the left-hand side of the gate-leg table.
Library
There is a small collection of Parisian guide books and some easy reading material—in both French and English. (There is also some info in the back section of the Guest Book in the apartment.) Feel free to use these and make notes on them if you like. Bottom-line, just make sure they are there for the next traveler. If you have any books that you want to leave, great.
Heat
There is no central heating in the apartment; there is a Delonghi oil-filled heater which is pretty efficient at warming up the studio. Because of the expense of operation though, please leave the heater either off or on a very low setting when you are out of the apartment. There is also an electric fan which helps to circulate the heat around the apartment.
Guest Book
Feel free to add your comments to the guest book. If you’ve found some great place to eat or walk, especially if it’s in the neighborhood, let us in on it.
Phone Use
The telephone in the apartment is set to accept any phone call but will allow only local outgoing calls. If you need to make a long distance call, you have two choices:
-- buy a phone card at one of the neighborhood tabacs (these look like credit cards—the so-called ‘smart cards’ because they have a computer chip mounted in the plastic—and come in different denominations). With this card you can phone from any public telephone booth in Paris. Just place a quick call from a phone booth and request a call-back at the apartment.
-- if you have an AT&T card or one of the other long distance carriers, dial the correct access number from Paris and you will be able to use your calling card for outgoing calls from the studio. You might want to make sure you have the correct access number before you leave the states.
General Clean-up and Leave-Taking
Before you go, please sweep and wet-mop the floor, shake out the rugs, make sure that all the garbage cans inside are emptied, and the garbage has been taken outside and placed in the proper bin. The bathtub, sink, and toilet should be cleaned. In the kitchen, wipe out the refrigerator and clean the counters and sink. Please don’t leave any food that will spoil—either in the cupboards or the fridge. Make sure that you turn off the heater before you leave. Close the window shutters and make sure that you latch them properly. Close and lock the door on your way out and shut the gate firmly.
Either Roy will make arrangements to meet you and pick up the keys—or simply leave them in an envelope (with Roy's name) in the mailbox just inside the security gate.
The apartment’s rental fees are reasonable because everyone helps with clean-up. Please do your part. top
Hope you enjoy your stay!