Long term (2 months) Paris Rental

Emma.. you will have almost an impossible time trying to find one place for two months.. I suggest you consider two one month stays as most agencies I have looked at have 30 day limits.

Also.. remember you cant actually stay a full three months in Europe without a special visa.. you are entitled to stay only 90 days( not three months ) on the Schengen Visa that we north americans are covered under automatically right now.

We stayed in this flat last spring/summer for ten weeks. We have called this home in Paris for at least seven months over eight years.

I found my month long rental in the Marais neighborhood through VRBO. He was willing to rent it for 2 months, which I had originally planned, but I had to shorten my stay to one month. The studio I rented was not suitable for a family but I'm sure you may find others on VRBO (or other apartment rental sites) that will rent for 2 months. You will probably have to use a vacation rental as a normal apartment rental will most likely have a minimum rental period of 3-6 months or longer. Now, I'm not sure if the more recent rental crackdowns in Paris affect the amount of time you are allowed to rent and it may be 30 days. You may have to do as Pat mentioned and rent two different places for one month each - which is not a bad idea at all to get exposure to different neighborhood, it's been suggested on here before.

Try parlerparisapartments.com. They have long term rentals. I have used them many times. They have really nice apartments with tons of amenities, located mostly in the Marais!

We have stayed two months at a time several times and one month several other times. You do need to book early but we never found it difficult to do. We have found places on VRBO and through Perfectly Paris. Generally you get a price break when booking for a month; in Paris it usually costs about 3 weeks rental for a month. For longer stays we like to be well out of the center -- the 17th or 18th or 14th or 11th.

Sabbatical Homes would be a good place to try. Most of the participants are professional educators who rent out their homes while they are teaching in other countries.

In addition to legal issues, there are many other things to consider when choosing. Regardless of the resource, everything turns on the owner or manager of the specific property you choose as to accuracy of listing, maintenance and cleanliness, reliability of taking care of anything that goes amiss during your stay. All depending on your budget, space is expensive, rooms are small, often with no closets. Rooms in photos on the web appear far more spacious when floors are bare and furnishings are minimal and almost always include wall to wall, so you need to inspect photos very carefully. Watch for a bed with a very narrow side table on each side with very small lamps. Make a list of all considerations. No elevator, living and dining seating adequate for the number in your family, bathroom configurations (tiny shower only okay?), kitchen (only 2 burners, counter top convection no oven in stove), and so on. Be sure to look at the neighborhood on Google streets and request feedback before your final selection. You just do not want to inadvertently looks over anything critical and you'd be stuck with for 2-3 months. Finally, think about summer and air conditioning. Few rentals have a/c. Those with some sort of a/c will not likely be anywhere close to comfortable, may or may not even "take the edge off". Throughout the city, few buildings have a/c (museums, restaurants, shops, etc.).

You didn't state how many members are in your family, and this is crucial information. Most apartments in Paris are small, those that have 2 full bedrooms will be expensive. Most of us have learned to live with the fact that internet connections are not always reliable, and working at the neighborhood cafe presents very real risks of hacking.

Since there is an active crackdown going on in Paris, and owners/managers can cancel your reservation at a moment's notice due to renting illegally, I'd choose to stay in a family room in a legal apart'hotel, such as Adagio or Citadines.Many of their locations have good deals, if you book ahead for the summer. Look for those with air-conditioning, because you will need it.

If you look in the suburbs outside of Paris, you won't have as much difficulty - but do check out the neighborhoods to be sure you'll be comfortable there.

London has the same problem with illegal rentals, so I'd recommend you do some more research on this.

Thank you all for the very useful information!

Crack downs: Yes I have heard about this, I'm actually not considering airbnb for that reason. Will look into VRBO, and the places you've all suggested. As far as extended stay hotels, I'd much rather not. We've gone that route and it just feels so clinical. The hope is to really feel like we are "living" as part of the city vs just visiting. We've stayed in apartments many times when traveling in Europe and really prefer that. We did one extended stay style apartment hotel and it felt like a hotel vs a local stay. Just our personal preference.

As far as working from the EU/UK, I've actually done that several times and the wifi is fine for my needs. I'm a Marketing Analyst so I remote connect into my desktop at the office. Thankfully that means my data needs are not that huge. The heavy lifting is really all happening on that box at work :)

Thank you again all SO much for your help. If any of you have further advice please let me know. This has been so helpful!

Sorry to burst your bubble, but AirBnB is not the only rental agency which is concerned with the crack-down.

All agencies and individuals which list on the internet are being investigated by the Mayor's task force. The information has been gathered during the last 3 years.
Agencies are not breaking any laws by listing apartments for rent, but owners and managers are usually guilty. Many will play around with calendars - or make them unavailable - but will continue to rent year-round. There is also the illegal "one-year lease", which is torn up when a client leaves after a week or longer.

This Thursday, the latest round of "controles" began, targeting 600 apartments in the 2nd arrondissement. Agents will show ID, ask a few questions and go on their way. The clients are not evicted and do not suffer any consequences - all that falls to the owner/agency.
If the owner is found to be renting illegally, he must stop renting immediately or pay a 50,000 EU fine.

It is because the crack-down is continuing, that there is a great possibility that apartments might disappear suddenly from the internet. It is also possible that "your" apartment might be cancelled because the owner did not want to risk paying a fine.

Owners must certify that they are renting legally for under 120 days - providing tax information, an agreement from the building's residents, constructing a new apartment or offer an existing one that he owns to the open market, pay the hotel room tax and finally secure a registration number - which will be prominently displayed on his website.

Exemptions are made for cities with a population of under 200,000. It is not far to some very nice suburbs, where you will probably have much better luck living among "real people", who rent during their vacation periods, rather than living among the tourists or foreign investors.