Calling Patrick
 

Hey Patrick,
Regarding: "Havana, I STRONGLY suggest you cancel your reservation at Relais St. Germain immediately. You have given a 100% accurate description of their rooms above and you already have indicated you dislike it. I suggest you start a new search for a hotel!!!!

You're a dear to have given me this urgent alert about the RStG. Very good of you to be looking out for my best interests, & I can't tell you how much it meant to me. I wanted to respond immediately but I wasn't yet ready to jump back into the fray - which you accurately surmised in another one of your posts.

Hope you have a lovely evening.

Patrick, you saved the day again, and isn't it nice to be offered the thanks?
Well done
:)

You're very welcome.

I was afraid I might be attacked for "sleuthing" and finding that thread where you described what you're really looking for, but glad you appreciate my sincere efforts. Some others would have taken my message as having some hidden agenda.
Did you see the website for Relais St. Germain? It's owned by interior designers (or was until recently anyway) and it is EVERYTHING you say you don't like in decor.

And Patrick, I wanted to thank you for recommending the RSG. I went in to look around on my recent trip and loved it. I will stay there next time.

How very funny. A thank you for discouraging RSG and a thank for recommending RSG both in the same thread. It just goes to show that some of us really do try to understand what people want. I recommended it heartily to Havana, until I understood what she was really looking for. Not everyone has the same taste -- that's for sure.

Well actually, that thread where I was seeking minimalism was a post from last year. I was just back from a stint at a DesignSuites hotel which I was crazy about, & I was contemplating a quick solo trip to Paris, but ended up not going.

Now, since I'm taking the child, I thought it was "only right" that she should experience a truly French feel to her digs, and God knows (and YOU do) that the RStG has got one helluva French feel going for it. After a lot of thought, and discussion w/aforementioned child, it was decided that it would be best for all concerned if we went w/2 rooms, 2 bathrooms instead of one enormous & lovely chambre at RStG.

You're going to Paris with ONE child and you need two rooms and two bathrooms? I must have been slumming it all these years.

I know what you mean St.Cirq, growing up I remember those family vacations where all five of us shared one room with one bath.

No, no, no! That would be the life, huh? Actually my daughter & I are going over first, and my husband will show up at some point. So the child & I will each have our own rooms until he shows up, which seems excessive, but it's the only way to do it. I mean if you want to reserve connecting rooms, I'm just assuming that you can't say, "OK, we'll take one of the rooms for 6 days and then we'll take both rooms for the next 4 days." Maybe I'm wrong, but I just assumed that couldn't be done, so even tho it is definitely odd to have 2 rooms for the 2 of us, I couldn't think of any other way to do it. Did I totally space on the logistics here or what?

Havana, I think I missed something. You weren't happy with the Fleurie we all know that. And you're not crazy about the RSG. So have you decided to stay with the Fleurie or are you staying somewhere else?

No, francophile, you didn't miss anything because I haven't mentioned where we're staying, but it's not the Fleurie & it's not RSG

Havana: Of COURSE you can book one room for X number of days and another room for X number of days! I've done it a gazillion times, as I always travel for longer periods of time with my kids than my husband can take off work. You probably can't reserve half of a chambre communicante for X days and then all of it for the next X days, but if you're willing to change rooms, get a single or double or whatever you need for you and the child for the first few days and then book a chambre communicante for the rest of the stay.

Save yourself some money and do this!

Patrick: Agreed, we all shared motel/hotel rooms growing up in my family, and frankly, on beach vacations here in the USA my kids and we have all shared one large double, too - of course with the knowledge of the hotel staff. Not suggesting we tried to bend the rules, just that we crammed into any space allowable on certain types of vacations.

Hey, let's get one thing straight here; growing up in a family of 5, I too remember many a vacation with all of us in a room with one bath. OK, just so we're on the same page with that.

All right, StCirq, so I definitely DID space on this. The arrangement you suggest did not occur to me. One small detail, however, is that the date of the husband's arrival is an unknown. Ahhhhhh. So that kind of throws a wrench in your plan, however, I will touch base with him tommorow & see if he'd like to firm things up. I kinda doubt that he'll want to.

If you can afford it, I think it's nice and less stressful to have separate rooms. I went on one big vacation with my parents when I was 16. While we easily fit into one room, it was hell. I remember that trip for the fascinating and beautiful places we saw, but also for the unpleasantness.

I have to agree with cmt. By the time we return to the room, whether it's early afternoon for a lie-down, or whenever, all I want is silence and all my daughter wants to do is watch cartoons in a different language.

So rethinking it, for the amount of money we'd save, I think we'd all be significantly happier if we could retire to our own chambre to decompress in our chosen way.

Hey Patrick
Know of a nice apartment in the golden triangle in Paris?

mjs: troublemaker! :D

I just could not help myself.

I'll go down this path just one more time...Every since I have had children (particularly when traveling in Europe) we go the apartment route whenever possible. Rooms across the pond can be notoriously small, reagardless of the quality of the establishment. I would still suggest, at least exploring this avenue.

To Havana, may I ask where you chose to stay after all?