Travel Tips

When we found St. Merry my heart leapt with joy until I was faced with the stairs. St. Merry was a Medieval convent and it has no elevator. The narrow stairs wind up in a circle and the first floor is actually the second. After having to carry the bags through the streets I was in no shape to climb stairs. Anyway, so we struggle up these stairs and practically collapse in the lobby where there are two people talking. None of them even look at us in spite of the fact that we both look tired, pale and winded. After what seemed like ten minutes of just standing there I asked, "Do you work here?" The man looked at me and said, "Yes." then went and sat down behind the desk without saying anything further. I looked at Rob. "We have reservations, room 15." He looked up indifferently and I repeated myself. When he understood the number he laughed.

OK the man was laughing at the fact that we had a reservation for a room, that was not good. After all that we had been through all we wanted was a hot shower and a bed. We certainly did not need to be laughed at. We needed some pampering and some hospitality. "Is there a problem with our room?" I asked. He nonchalantly old us that our room wasn't ready yet and to come back two hours later. Rob and I sat down and I told him we would wait for it to be ready. After 15 minutes or so he made a phone call upstairs and told us it would be an hour and a half. Not wanting to look at this man another minute we got up to take a walk. We asked if we could leave our suitcases in the lobby and at first he said no but I think the look of death I gave him and the "Excuse me!" that followed changed his mind.

We went downstairs, bought a Coke and sat down, motionless on the side of the church watching the silly fountain in front of the Pompidou Center. We zoned out for the next hour and a half and watched as a Robinson Crusoe looking bum accosted the tourists as they posed for pictures. When we returned we were handed a room key and luckily there were no further issues. We had to carry one bag at a time up the winding stairs so, four trips later, we were able to close the door of our room and relax. The room was very small but it definitely had charm. The hand carved, mahogany, gothic furniture had been built right into the stone walls. The room had large windows which we opened, a table, a bed and a gigantic armoire. Thick ceiling beams crossed the high ceiling and a wrought iron lamp, that had seen better days, hung in the center of the room. The bathroom was tiny and the shower stall could barely fit only one, but I was just glad that it was there. We took our shoes off, unpacked as best we could and showered. By the time I emerged, Rob was already half asleep under the comfy sheets. We snuggled and one thing led to another. The funny part is that we were trying to be all quiet lest the springs give us away to the cleaning lady out in the hall but after a while it didn't matter and we just enjoyed ourselves...so much so that we fell asleep exhausted and didn't wake up until nearly 10.

That evening we ventured forth to survey our surroundings. Our hotel was located in a pretty happening part of town with lots of little cafes, food vendors and thrift shops. It was very East Village. We wound up eating a tasty but somewhat pricey dinner at a restaurant called "Les Epicureans de Lombard" and after dinner we took a walk across the Seine to Notre Dame. When we returned to the hotel we were greeted by a very pleasant man whose name we later learned was Cecci. He asked us what we wanted for breakfast and we agreed on hot chocolate at 7:30 AM. We wanted to get an early start. Thankfully, Cecci was as pleasant as the first guy was annoying and he totally eased our fears about the service and the hotel as a whole. From there on in Cecci always had a smile for us and breakfast promptly at our door. Back at our room, we spent a few hours figuring out our itinerary for the next day and went to bed past midnight after some more fooling around ;)