Quote of the Day: Clive James

"Fiction is life with the dull bits left out."

I will be brief today for that very reason. I just wanted to touch on one thing I forgot to yesterday.

Our accommodations in Paris were "interesting." There are several Tim Hotels in Paris. One is a three star hotel located in Montparnasse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montparnasse) and one is a two-star located in Pigalle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigalle). I was quoted on the Montparnasse hotel which seemed like a good choice because it was right by a lot of sites we wanted to see.

Now based on the pictures, which one do you think we ended up actually being booked at? That's right, the one in Pigalle. In fact, you can see the very edge of our hotel touching the left side of the Sexodrome in that picture. On the other side, was a sex shop. We were in the famous red light district of Paris. You know, the one with the Moulin Rouge? It was pretty much like the worst parts of Aurora Avenue in Seattle condensed down into ten blocks. It was a very dangerous district to be using the pay phone in the middle of the night in, at least according to the woman at Western Union who gave us our money.

I can say a few positive things about our hotel. Our room may have been too small to open two suitcases at the same time but at least it was clean and when we complained about the two twin beds on our honeymoon they fixed the problem by zipping the beds together. They even had a free continental breakfast that consisted of croissants and warm milk and a rude French women and her son making fun of us for eating like the hungry Americans we were.


PS
I really did like Paris. In fact, I liked it so much we missed our flight out we were having such a good time. Or maybe it was because NW Airlines has a lot to learn about customer service. In all seriousness, I can't wait to go back.