I want a bathroom door: surprises of my Paris flat

What is a ‘Chambre de bonne’?

Most au pairs in Paris live in apartments that are called ‘une chambre de bonne’ (a maid’s room).

Basically, back in the old days, wealthy families would live in the main spaces of the Paris flats, and their servants would be shoved up in tiny spaces in the attic. A lot of these spaces can only be accessed by separate servant stairs – like I had. In U.S. terms, my apartment was on the 8th floor. However, according to the French, I was only on the 6th floor. This is because my apartment building had a floor labeled ‘entre-sol’ (in-between floors). Also, the French count the first floor of each building as level zero, not level one.

In my building, I was lucky to have an elevator (tons of Parisian buildings don’t – elevators are a luxury). But it only went up to the ‘5th’ floor. In order to get to my apartment, I had to climb another steep staircase in the corner.

It was so cool.

How big are they?

The legal limit is 9 m². This is about 100 sq ft. For reference, that is about the size of a walk-in closet in the U.S. What’s crazy is there are rooms that are even smaller than this – but the French government has made it illegal to rent them out. Legally, as an au pair, your room needs to be 9 m² – it is even specified in the contract.

I have seen a lot of my friends’ au pair apartments, and yes, some of them do live in areas that small. My apartment was quite a bit bigger, and it had a lot of extra floor space because the ceiling was slanted. And slanted ceilings don’t count toward the legal requirement. I even had a separate bedroom and living space – which is basically unheard of. And I had an extra twin bed.

I was really living in the lap of luxury.

The toilet situation

A staple of a lot of these apartments is that they don’t include a toilet. Instead, there is one toilet in a tiny room all by itself in the hallway, and all of the servants would share. My neighbor in this apartment had to use the toilet on the landing.

I got my own, though! Right in my apartment!

Right next to the kitchen, with only a curtain to separate. And I had no curtains over the window. For most of the time when I was living there, there were construction workers on the scaffolding right outside my apartment who just got a free show, and there was nothing I could do.

You just learn to live with these things, I guess.

Having a strange toilet situation is just a part of the charm of Paris. My advice is to just embrace it. It was at least a conversation starter with all of my guests.

Ratatouille living in my apartment

When I moved in, the first thing I noticed was the rat droppings. Turns out it was actually an enormous shrew that had made itself at home. It would wake me up in the middle of the night with the scritching sound of it snacking on my cereal. As a poor person, this was quite upsetting. Groceries are expensive, and I really couldn’t afford to be shopping for two.

So I had to deep clean the apartment and set about trying to trap it. I tried to rig up the traps that were left in the apartment – but that didn’t work. Then I bought baking soda to try to have it, like, eat itself to death or something. I don’t know. That didn’t work either. Eventually, I bought wall foam and just went crazy trying to fill every little crack in the apartment.

This was difficult because it came in through under the sink, which was basically just a big gaping hole. But I persevered. And voila! It worked. I never saw the shrew again.

A few weeks later, however, I had someone who was renting an Airbnb in the building stop me and ask if I knew how to deal with shrews. I guess my friend decided to take up occupancy in their apartment after he was rudely evicted from mine. Sorry, guys.

The perks

What’s the best part of a chambre de bonne? It’s on the top floor. This means incredible views. It was the highlight of my stay. I could open my windows at any time and see the Eiffel Tower sparkle.

And the sunsets were gorgeous.

If you have the chance to live in a chambre de bonne, I think it’s great. It’s a completely different type of apartment. I only recommend it when you’re young though. Trying to deal with all those stairs and the sloped ceilings would be a nightmare if I was anything but a broke girl in my twenties.

Let me know below if you have any questions about living in a chambre de bonne!

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