Power Paris Finale

photos: laura and i eating our angelina's pain au chocolat on the balcony

...So we get to the hotel and ask for our key , "trente-et-un" and the man at the desk says "trente-et-un?" and we say "oui." He proceeds to then ask for name, tell me we are no longer in trente-et-un and that we are now in room soixante-et-un. Huh.
Nonono sir, we were in 31 already; we stayed there last night; all of our things are scattered about the place.
He apologies and repeats 61.
Laura says: no. our stuff? all of stuff was in 31. we have a different room now?
Man: Yes
LAura: So our things are now in this room?
Man: yes
LAura: so we're in a new room and you've moved all of things there and now someone else is in 31?
Man: Yes
Us:...uhh... merci?

Then we traipse up to the sixth floor to find our new room... which has only one bed? i see. But at least it had a balcony and a nicer shower. We think some tricky things were done. However, when i looked on the ticket it said "room type: standard twin/double," which we though meant the pricing, though i suppose they could swing it to mean one room of each. Anyway, i don't know enough french to argue it, so we dealt with it.

We woke up early once more in order to walk down the Champs d'elysee, a very large, shopping friendly street. Since it was Sunday, most shops were closed, but we were able to get croissants and that's really all that matters. At the end of the street is l'Arc de Triumphe, which is QUITE large. We had some trouble getting over to the island area where the arch was, despite the rather obvious sign nearby. We eventually found said sign and went under the crazy traffic to walk right up to the arch. Since we were tired and in a bit of a rush, we did not go up the arch.
This was the end of power paris.

We walked back, stopped at Angelina's for a pain au chocolat, and walked back up to, not 31, no, but 61. After packing up all of our things, we went out on the balcony and at our delicious pastries in the beautiful weather. Shortly thereafter we bade adieu to the Frenchies at the desk , turned in our key, and took the bus to the airport. While waiting for the drug sniffing dog to finish excitedly sniffing everyone and everything in sight, we saw Dave Coleman and co. again, for apparently they were two seats behind us on this flight. The flight went very quickly ( we don't actually get our drink and snack until we start the descent), though at the end everyone got a bit concerned about the sobriety of our pilot. There was a bit of swaying, but i think we just hit a wierd pocket of wind as we landed. The man next to me seemed less than pleased...

I was so excited to be back home in London, and hearing a loud cockney accent telling a woman to "go down those stairs over there ,love..." was like music to my still popping ears.