Our hotel and Chartres —Camponile Centre Gare—treated us very well. The woman in charge on Sunday had taken a liking to us and was very impressed that I was trying to use my French. When the rain storm came last night close to dinner time, she helped us find a place where we could get dinner delivered. Michelle helped her clean up the dining area for us, ( she loved her for it) because there had just been another Rick Steves group hold an orientation in that room. The hotel was in his book of recommended places and I chose it because of that and because of its proximity to the train station. Anyway, the woman last night who was in charge, and the man in charge today both treated us like royalty, giving us much more attention than other guests. ( because we were needy?!). We were there for three nights, and we were very friendly and easy to get along with which they seemed to appreciate.
So this morning we had reserved massages at a very nice hotel nearby. Before going for the massage I said we should go to the train station and figure out how to get around there before we were carrying our bags. That was a really good idea because there were things we needed to figure out—-like the elevator.
Our massages were very good. They only had time for one hour massage and Michelle and I are accustomed to the longer ones, but regardless, it was very nice. For me the 6 or 7 miles I walked yesterday meant my body really needed the massage!
We returned to our hotel to shower & pack our bags. We got an extension to check out time without cost— which was another example of them treating us very nicely.
I asked our guy ( mgr) at the hotel for advice on getting the train tickets and he said oh I’ll go with you and help you get the tickets from the machine! So if you can imagine he pulled Michelle‘s suitcase and walked us one block to the train station and helped us buy the tickets in the machine! I’m sure he was the day manager. I told him that I would let Rick Steves organization know how well we were treated there and we weren’t even a part of his tour yet. He seemed very pleased with that.
We took the one hour train to Paris, and I had envisioned sitting very comfortably, but we had the cheaper tickets which I regret getting, and the luggage rack was full so handling our bags was a hassle. Oh well. It’s all part of the adventure, right?
When we arrived at the hotel, I had the GPS walking directions from the train station that I previously looked up, but I’m not certain that we exited the train station at the right place. It took quite a bit of figuring for us to identify the right streets to take but ultimately we did find our way. This is the street in Montparnasse where Jackie and I had stayed previously. It was familiar to me. The room is tiny, but very nicely appointed. Hotel Lenox Montparnasse.
Dinner: “les fondues de la raclette” in Montparnasse. So this is probably my favorite meal! After my freshman year in college Mom and I had a week in London. We discovered a place called the Swiss center, which was sponsored by the Swiss government and had shops and restaurants pertaining to Switzerland. Mom and I discovered raclette and both were thrilled! I think we went there for dinner three times in a week! Finding a restaurant in the US that does raclette is very rare. When Roger and I were in Switzerland, I was in cheese heaven!
Unfortunately this one was a huge disappointment. I don’t know why, but they served a plate of cheese & meat at first and I said oh, I don’t eat meat so he brought a plate of blanched vegetables, which does not go with raclette! It had broccoli and carrots etc and did not have the tiny onions and potatoes, and cornichons that it should have had! I don’t know if this is the French version of raclette or what but I was extremely disappointed— although I have had it done correctly in Paris before. The cheese itself was OK but not very strong. The tourist variety I guess! So I was very disappointed in the dinner. I will just have to make my own when I get home. Or go to Switzerland.!
I’m in Paris!!!😀
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