They Like Me, They Really Like Me!

OK, they probably just like me for the money my company spends for me to stay there. Hey, as far as I'm concerned right now, it's a win-win! If you've read my blog in the past, you know that my current favorite place to stay when I travel to Los Angeles is W Hollywood. During my last few stays, I've had some unusual breakfast experiences. One time, I placed my order the night before (if you hang a your breakfast order on the handle outside your door by Midnight, your food will be delivered at the time you choose on the order form) and it never arrived. I was charged for it on my bill so before I left I noted this and they gave me a credit. The second time, since I now didn't trust that I would get my breakfast if I left my order on the door the night before, I called to place my order in the morning. The room service staff then told me they were very busy and I wouldn't be able to get breakfast for an hour. Forget that!

This is what showed up in my room during my recent stay. An apology note accompanied this lovely bowl of fruit and bottle of water! So nice of them.


Here are a couple of other photos from my stay:

Isn't it nice how they parked my silver SUV (glorified mini-van) next to the Lamborghini?

This is the view of the stairs from the Living Room I may not have shown in the past. It's a little gaudy, but so L.A. fabulous!

"It's Not What Happens to You...

... it's how you handle it after it happens." I kept repeating that phrase in my head the night of January 1st before I went to sleep. It took me about 24 hours, but I became determined to pull myself together and see those last sights on my "to do" list in Paris. Early the next morning I woke up and headed out to see Sacre-Coeur before the sun came up. I arrived there as a small tourist-y shop was opening and bought myself a disposable camera. Yeah, the kind you used to see on the tables at weddings! My Nikon digital camera battery had died during my visit to Versailles (I know, I know, I forgot the charger) and I needed something that would take photos! It felt odd taking a picture and not knowing what it would look like. Really odd. I did the old crank-crank-crank and snapped my shots!

After Sacre-Coure in the Montmartre neighborhood, I made my way to Musee Rodin. I arrived before it opened so I walked down the street and took in the sights of the Eiffel Tower and the Hotel des Invalides. This is Europe's greatest military museum and Napoleon's tomb is there. I found a coffee shop so I could get myself a Cafe au Lait (as close as they get to a "latte" in Paris, well, unless you go to Starbucks) and a croissant. There seemed to be just locals in the cafe gathering around the coffee bar and chit-chatting, or whatever they were saying in French. I had learned during this trip that my high-school French sounded much better in my head than out loud, so wasn't one to try to join a conversation. Quickly I noticed that the barista was the best-looking French man had ever seen! What on earth was he doing making coffee? He should have been in the pages of a magazine! If only, if only, I still had my iPhone where I could discreetly shoot a fast snapshot of him and then hide it away as if nothing happened. Sigh. The idea of cranking that silly disposable camera in order to take a photo of him, almost made me laugh out loud! I drank my coffee, ate my croissant and scanned a newspaper I couldn't read (nice pictures though) until it was time to make it back to see Rodin's sculptures. I still have the little cube of sugar I took from the cafe and often think fondly of that morning.

The beautiful white church looking out over Paris. I learned there is prayer going on within the church 24 hours a day.

The view out over Paris early in the light of morning. My disposable camera didn't do it justice. It wasn't this dark outside.

Hotel des Invalides

A little cube of sugar from Cafe Richard.

Musee Rodin is actually his former place of residence. Rodin was a very famous artist while he was alive and lived in this Paris mansion.

Looking out over the backyard gardens.

The Thinker

A photo looking back towards the house.

Here is some of the email I wrote to my sister and parents before I got on my flight to home.

Here are some thoughts from today:

1) Sacre-Coeur at sunrise - Beautiful! Snapped a photo on my cool new Kodak disposable camera. ; )

2) Musee Rodin - Glad I made it, I think I liked seeing the mansion where he lived more than the sculptures, although they were incredible.

3) The macaroons I'm bringing home from Laduree are going to be dee-lish (well... I'll let you be the judge of that, but I think they are yummy). Sorry Meg, they won't make it until I see you in February. : (

4) I've learned some damn hard lessons this trip. Either they will make me a smarter world traveler or I'll never leave the US again.

5) Everyone at hotel computer kiosks is on Facebook. Everyone.

Anger and Disappointment in Paris

I can't say my trip to Paris went perfectly. It actually had a very low point after the New Year's celebration I joined on the Champs Elysees. I made my way back to my hotel that night in a rather round-a-bout way. It was probably only a 15 minute walk to my hotel from where I was (I had made my way over there via the Metro), but the route back was blocked by an incredible amount of security around the Arc de Triomphe. My plan was to travel back by the Metro as well, but it was so crowded, the gendarme (police) would not let anyone in after 12:30 AM. I was forced to walk. I can't say the road I took back was empty, but it wasn't full of people either. I was 2 blocks from my hotel and the iPhone I had owned for 1 1/2 weeks was literally grabbed right out of my hand. For the first time in my life, I had been robbed!

It was devastating. Ask my parents, they were the ones who received my hysterical phone call once I made it back to my hotel. As far as I was concerned, my trip was ruined! I had stupidly kept my phone in plain sight and had been followed by some young punks who probably did this for a living. It was terrifying and humiliating at the same time. : ( The part that upset me the most wasn't the possibility that the criminals would run up my phone bill (I called AT&T before the call to my parents and had my phone service stopped right away), but all of the photos and videos I had taken the last 5 days I had been in Paris had just been lost! Yes, I had taken photos on my Nikon digital camera, but I had shot so many more on my iPhone. Those photos were the fun, cute shots you take quickly and discreetly, you know? When I was on the stairs from the 2nd to 1st level of the Eiffel Tower, I had taken a great video of the lights twinkling all around me. It was just magical. There were photos from Marie Antoinette's hamlet in Versailles, the food and goodies we ate on the culinary tour, etc... gone, they were all gone. I'm sure those bad guys enjoyed looking through the images of my trip before they swiped the phone clean and sold it on eBay.

The next morning, January 1st, most shops and museums were closed in Paris so I knew it would be a quiet day anyway. Part of me wanted to re-schedule my flight and go home that day! This was where the hotel computers came in handy though. I started sending emails to my family, telling them I was OK. They were really worried about me, of course. Even though I had a less-than-supportive conversation with the hotel concierge (he had no sympathy for my plight and was surly while I asked for advice about my stolen phone), over the course of the day, my mood lifted a bit. My sister Meg told me to give it some time. She reassured me that the trauma I was feeling, in time would turn into, "Can you believe what happened to me?" In hindsight I would tell the story in a much lighter note.

Luckily, I had sent a few of my iPhone photos to friends and family during the trip, as well as, posting some to Facebook. I was able to retrieve a few of them, even the Versailles Hall of Mirrors video. It seemed to lose it's quality being sent back and forth, but that didn't bother me much, at least I have it. On an interesting note, I had been keeping track of what I had done so far in Paris on the Notes app on my phone. Sometime earlier in the day of the 31st, it occurred to me that I should forward what I had written so far to my email address. Just in case. Thank goodness I did! I would have never remembered all of the detail I had written down if I had not sent it to myself. Later in the day on the 1st, I decided I would stick it out and enjoy my last day in the City of Light.