Paris apartment rentals are wonderful, but… their damn staircases. It is a pretty staircase though, but we’ve seen too much of it from our top floor apartment.
Baron Haussmann’s project from 1853 until 1870 under Napoleon III was to widen the streets and narrow alleyways into boulevards was followed by construction of modern apartment buildings to replace the haphazard mix of flats of medieval Paris.
These striking residential buildings are the result. With heights ranging from 12 to 20 meters tall (39 to 66 feet tall), each building was tailored to the proportions of its boulevard and none exceed six stories.
This is wonderful, but it’s a long way up to our Paris apartment rental, and a long way down. You really need to plan your day when you’re living on the top floor of one of these beautiful old Montmartre apartment buildings.
You just don’t nip out for a baguette, it’s a full-blown shopping mission – and make sure you have a shopping list! Still, it’s a great way to keep fit and they say that people who live in walk-up apartments live longer because of the exercise right up until old age.
Something to think about before you book a high ceiling apartment on the top floor of a Parisian apartment…
Laughing…bet that was fun with suitcases and groceries.
Groceries were fine, the suitcases not so much…at least there was a bottle of champagne there at the top waiting for us, we needed it!
Read a report the other day that old men who live in walk up apartments live longer and are fitter…
Reminds me of a rental I had in Barcelona many years ago. 6th floor, with gradually narrowing stairs, the last set, up to the rented flat, was quite narrow and had to carry the suitcase behind me while going up. Thankfully I was fitter back then than now… I can definitely see how people live longer trekking up and down this every day.
Awesome! I started laughing until I remember that day when after a week vacation in South Africa I had a terrible overnight flight, where I got no sleep, sat on a jumpseat for over 10 hours, then got to the parking lot in Malpensa (Milan) airport and seeking clueless my car…I suddenly remembered that I had parked it at Linate airport….only 70 miles away….ooops! Wrong airport!
Well that’s not a climb to do every day in high heels – food shopping must be a nightmare
Copying a fun conversation on Twitter today in here relating to Paris stairs:
@jakerpruneau I have the fittest thighs from all this walking upstairs that I have to do
@jakerpruneau @WeekendInParis 5 flights of stairs and no elevator! What is this!? Hahaha
@52martinis to @jakerpruneau welcome!… btw, I hear ya….i have 4 flights and no elevator! :) @WeekendInParis
@gran_tourismo to @52martinis @jakerpruneau @WeekendInParis Four flights of stairs & no elevator? You should appreciate this then: (LINK TO VIDEO ABOVE) http://bit.ly/bqbQ7d ^LD
@52martinis to @gran_tourismo @jakerpruneau @WeekendInParis ha ha! yes, i try to remind myself “stairmaster!” everytime i drag myself up four flights! :)
@gran_tourismo to @52martinis @jakerpruneau @WeekendInParis Those thoughts were only thing that got me up stairs too + the bottle of French wine in our fridge ^LD
@52martinis to @gran_tourismo @jakerpruneau @WeekendInParis lol! yes fortunately I know there’s a full bar at the top of my climb! :)
@WeekendInParis to @gran_tourismo @52martinis @jakerpruneau LOL at all the responses about the Parisian stairs!