Day 5

This was not technically my last day in France, but it was my last day to do anything. By do anything, I mean I got to pack, walk to a market, and pack some more. I also got to do a little reading. Why did I get to do all that? Well, Tim was away. Yes, he was off at the American Ambassadors house with the French president, and many other dignitaries having a 9/11 remembrance function. It was originally thought that I would get to be there too, but at the last minute they decided I didn't have the correct security clearance, and therefore, I got to spend the day getting us ready to head off to our hotel.

This is the home we stayed in. Isn't it just so cute? It was exactly how I pictured a European home to be like. It was small, but extremely cozy. I'd love to have a summer home like this somewhere.... ahh, it was really nice.

Tim eventually made it home, and Froncois and Sylvian (the couple that were putting us up) offered to drive us to our hotel. We were staying at the Dolce Chantilly in Chantilly. (pronounced shantee yee). Tim was excited to get there. He had scoured the Internet and found this hotel. It was advertised as a 4 star hotel with a shuttle to the airport. It was approximately 9 miles from Charles De Gualle, and that was my only pre-requisite. (Since Tim was leaving a full 24 hours before me, I wanted a way to get to the airport.) When we checked in, we discovered, no, there was no shuttle, but we were welcome to take a taxi, costing roughly 60-70 Euro. (about $90-$110). Nice huh? We got to our room, and it was small, but pretty. A bed, and a TV. There were some English channels, but they were all sports or news related. The bathroom was great, with a huge bath tub, and I figured I could enjoy that the next day when Tim was gone. We ventured down to the restaurant, but the prices were up around 40-50 Euro a plate, so we opted to walk about 3 miles into the main part of town where we got some cash for Taxi rides, and found a Chinese restaurant to eat at. Then, we got to walk 3 miles, in the dark, back to the hotel. It was a lovely walk, and a decent dinner.

Tim left early Saturday morning, and I spent the day reading books ( I made sure I had plenty to read before I left for France for this reason!). I pretty much spent the whole day taking little naps and reading. Around 9pm I heard what sounded like someone taking a hose and spraying down the wall of my room. I walked around, and didn't see anything, looked outside, again, nothing, and eventually it stopped. I assumed it was the pipes in the wall. About an hour later, I hear a drip. I look up and the light fixture was dripping water at a very decent pace. I called the front desk, and tried to get my point across. I even looked up "there's water leaking from my ceiling" in French to try and explain my predicament. Eventually someone came up and saw what was going on. They said there was nothing they could do, it was a problem with the A/C and offered to move me to another room. I opted for the new room. I'm glad I did.... it was a SUITE!

This is the view from one of the 3 windows....

The robe and slippers that came with the room.

Just this part of the room, the part with the bed, is what the size of the other room was.

The living room, in my room....

One side of the bathroom had a shower, with the rain maker thing in the ceiling.

The other side had a jetted tub!

I took full advantage of the tub! I mean, I knew I only got to be in this room for about 12 hours, before I had to check out, so I took advantage. I also forced myself to stay awake until about 3 am so I could sleep a little on the plane, and not have too much jet lag when I got into SLC.

(when I woke up the next morning, there was water all over the floor by the front door, it was coming out of the wall.... I think something needs to be done about the water in this particular hotel!)