A Romanian woman had an unexpected experience in Paris after booking an apartment online. The young woman received the access code, but found herself having to open a secret door and walk down a hidden corridor, like in a fairy tale, to reach her accommodation.
Video source: TikTok/ @daonmada
The Romanian, together with her friend, arrived in the French capital and was delighted to receive all the details from the owner via a message. “I have arrived in wonderful Paris and now to show you my wonderful accommodation. I was very happy that they texted me the instructions and how to get into the apartment and the staircase of the building, but they didn’t tell me that I was going to go into Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets. (…) We enter a code to enter the staircase. The staircase is very beautiful, old architecture“, she told.
The young woman showed netizens the building’s reception, the elevator and the main staircase, but specified that the access to their apartment is not by the usual route. “He says I’ll find my apartment on the second floor, and normally we’d take it this way, through the main hall on the ground floor of the building, but what do you think? Come on to show you where my accommodation is. Have you ever thought that you should come in here?”, explains the Romanian, while opening a “secret” door, camouflaged in the wall.
First impressions of the apartment
Once past the hidden door, the young woman and her partner climbed the stairs to the apartment, but the experience continued to be surprising. “You then enter this smaller door and go up into the princess castle. It stinks, it’s being renovated now and it smells musty. There’s something very shaky on the floor too, so you’re afraid it might fall on you. Then we have another staircase that’s more shaky than the first one. Here we have another code to access the upper floor and we have to open a very heavy door“, explained the young woman.
Arriving in the apartment, the two tourists filmed the interior. The Romanian described the room as “a little room, they’re all like matchboxes. We have a view of nothing, you basically look out and see other apartments. We have the lovely bathroom and on this side the shower“, she explains.
Haussmannian apartments and their origins
Parisian Haussmannian buildings, like the one where the Romanians stayed, are famous for their elegant architecture, developed in the second half of the 19th century by Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, under the leadership of Emperor Napoleon III. During this period, many old neighborhoods were demolished, and in their place appeared wide boulevards and buildings with aligned facades, long wrought iron balconies and apartments arranged on different floors.
Small rooms, called “chambres de bonne”, were for staff and were often on the top floor, with separate entrances and stairs for servants. Today, many of these spaces have been renovated and converted into studios or apartments, long-term rentals or for tourists, due to their more affordable prices and central location.
