Through some grace of the universe, hubby and I will be spending a night in the amazing art installation/hotel ‘pod’ known as Hotel Everland. I became obsessed with this place the moment I saw it on Paris Daily Photo (thank you Eric, so, so much!) and have been double clicking the shortcut I put on my desktop constantly since last fall. One can only stay for a single night, and you have to arrive at the reservation page at the precise moment they release a night, 60 days in advance. For special nights, they’ve done auctions on Ebay, and the winning bids have been between $4500-9300 USD!! I’d started thinking it would never happen, but on Memorial Day, while filling time before picking up hubby at the airport, I clicked just for the heck of it, with the vague feeling “maybe this time…” Well, an unfamiliar page popped up, that looked quite like a reservation form. I got a little nervous- hubby was in the air, so I couldn’t consult with him, and of course securing the reservation meant not only paying for the ‘room’, but also getting to Paris and accommodations for the rest of our stay.
I decided that I’d keep filling out the form until it asked me for money. At first I thought I’d be entered into a lottery to reserve that night, but I got to the end without being asked for a credit card, and in a few minutes I’d received an email telling me I had a reservation! I was over the moon with glee, but also nervous because now I had to convince hubby we should DO THIS! or figure out how to cancel the reservation.
And as if the day wasn’t weird enough already, when I got to the airport I saw hubby standing next to Michael Kang of the String Cheese Incident- our favorite band. So surreal… I got to introduce myself and shake his hand- what a powerful little being that man is! So after that excitement, I got hubby into the car and told him the news. Since we had already discussed and dismissed the idea of going to Europe this summer (bad exchange rate, exorbitant airfare) his first reaction was- no way- too expensive. But such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity needs more consideration than that, right?
So next day, I called my parents- I thought I should talk over the idea of pressing this issue with hubby with my elders. I knew that if I pushed, hubby would relent, if a bit begrudgingly, but with the poor economy I wasn’t confident about allotting a good portion of our savings to something so extravagant. During the conversation, my Dad got on the phone to hear my tale, and then hung up. A few minutes later he picked up the phone and said- why don’t you see if there’s a Marriott you can stay in- I have all these rewards points that we’ll never use up and maybe you can use them. OH! MY! I called Marriott and they said yes, the points can be gifted. Then I checked their website and found a hotel in a reasonable location, clicked the points icon and saw the number it would require, and thought, no, that’s too many points. But when I called my Dad back and told him how many, his response was “is that all?”.
SO: we are going! We’ll stay for free at the Marriott Rive Gauche in Montparnasse- an area that held no interest for me, but that on study looks to be pretty interesting. It was, in the ’20s and 30s, the heart of the Bohemian culture in Paris, where Picasso, Hemingway, Cocteau, Matisse, Modigliani and others lived and hung out in the local bars and cafes. And in far better accommodations than we could ever afford ourselves- imagine, a comfy bed in Paris! And since this will be our second time there, we’re looking forward to long, slow days (Paris is pretty far north, and we were delighted to learn how late it stays light in summer!) checking out the various neighborhoods and soaking up the culture.
No doubt there will be more ravings as our trip approaches…
Endz 
