Paris, One More Time

One of the perks of J's job is that sometimes it sends him to fun places. This past weekend, he had to attend a "retreat" of sorts in Paris, and the firm was kind enough to put him up at the Hotel Regina in central Paris for two nights. Although I'd been to Paris before, I thought it'd be fun to tag along and see some of the sights I didn't get a chance to the last time I was here.

We hopped onto the Eurostar Thursday afternoon, and we were in Paris by early evening. We were pretty hungry, so we headed over to this cafe called Le Fumoir behind the Louvre that a friend had recommended to me. The dining room was adorable - it was basically a smallish library with dining tables scattered about. I already knew about the sky high food prices in Paris, but my eyes still bugged out a little when I saw that dinner was a set menu of 3 courses for 35 EUR. Yikes. But the food was amazing and worth every euro - I would definitely go back.

After our great meal, we wandered back to the hotel to find a host of problems waiting for us. The Hotel Regina is a four star hotel that had been recently renovated, and the rooms don't come cheap. Too bad it doesn't show. The thing about European hotels is that they're never going to be as nice as American hotels, so you have to reset your expectations. In any case, our room had a musty smell, the bathroom had a funky smell, the volume on our TV didn't work, the safe wouldn't shut, and the mattresses were overly firm. Oh, and a double bed is literally a double bed - two mattresses pushed together.

We called down to reception to see if anything could be done, and they sent over a guy to fiddle with the TV some to no avail. We pretty much shrugged our shoulders and decided to hit the sack. To be frank, I think we would've been surprised if they had done something about it - service here is not the same as it is in the US. We went to sleep on our overly firm mattresses, and I laid there wondering what I should do the following day when I was going to be on my own since J would be occupied with work things pretty much all day long...