‘She doesn’t live in Paris, she survives’: Influencer shocks viewers with tiny apartment

An influencer’s tiny $530-a-month Paris apartment shocks viewers.

In a viral Instagram video, Peruvian communications student Natalia Vega showed off her 97-square-foot apartment in the City of Light’s gorgeous 7th arrondissement. After moving from Peru to Paris in December 2021, she began posting content chronicling her adventures as a student in France. More than 50,000 followers later, Vega gave her followers an insight into the not-so-glamorous side of living in Paris.

She took viewers on an apartment tour, guiding a cameraman up seven flights of stairs before finally reaching her student apartment, joking: “Welcome to my mansion.”

With a twin-sized bed pressed against the wall, a small kitchen directly next to the bed, and a tiny bathroom, Vega noted she had to get creative with how she used the space. Because of the lack of space, she uses the kitchen counter as a desk. She added that she’s lived in the apartment for two years.

When the person behind the camera asked her how she could live in such a small space, she replied: “I don’t know.”

She captioned the video, “Do you think this 97-square-foot apartment in the 7th arrondissement is worth it?”

In the comment section, people were stunned, calling the small apartment a bonafide “closet.”

“That’s not an apartment! That’s a closet!!!” one person wrote.

“Deathrow Inmates is Norway living 5 times better than this,” a user joked, while another added: “I think a jail cell has more room.”

“She doesn’t live in Paris, she survives,” someone else wrote.

A fourth person noted, “People move from 3rd world countries to 1st world countries to live like 3rd world countries.”

Meanwhile, other people praised Vega for showing the reality of living in Paris, given the current cost-of-living crisis.

“Huge respect for being transparent with her apartment,” someone commented.

One person noted, “Respect girl!!! This is reality finally on the internet.”

In an interview with Newsweek, Vega candidly spoke about her housing situation, noting that it was part of a student housing package offered through her university.

“I’m studying communications in Paris and my school has a database for housing, so it was really easy for me to rent the apartment,” she told the outlet. “Since those kinds of places are for students, I didn’t mind taking it because I tend to spend the whole day at school and I just go there to sleep.”

She continued, “Despite the apartment being 9 square meters, I have my own toilet, washing machine and even a kitchen. Sometimes, those renting these types of rooms, known in France as chambre de bonnes, have to share toilets, don’t have washing machines or even kitchenettes.”

Some have dubbed Vega’s living situation the real Emily in Paris experience, referencing the Netflix series’ penchant for fantasy when it comes to living in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

In a 2021 report for The Economist, experts wrote: “On average, prices for goods and services have risen by 3.5% year-on-year, the highest inflation rate seen in the last five years.”

As a result of the cost-of-living crisis, economists noted that everyday people, including students like Vega, pay a hefty price tag to afford basic housing and necessities.