Very early in my planning I made a reservation for 3 nights at the Hyatt Regency Etoile, using Chase Sapphire points. I chose a room with a view of the Eiffel Tower, knowing that it lights up at night. For the first night I figured we would stay in an airport hotel so we could just go there quickly and take a nap. But the more I read about the CDG airport hotels – basically crappy reviews and not necessarily quick to get there – the more I thought maybe we should just go directly into Paris.
After practically a year of trying to figure out our first night plan, I used more points to reserve a room at the Hotel Balzac. The reservation included early check-in and late check-out, $100 hotel credit, welcome gift, and breakfast. I was particularly taken with the early check-in, because, despite what everyone says about jet lag, we have always done best if we just go to sleep for a few hours wherever we go.
When our cab pulled up, we were greeted by an employee, dressed in a black morning coat, who whisked our luggage up the stairs. We went to the front desk and were told that our room would be ready in an hour, so we walked around and had lunch at an Italian sandwich shop, then went back to the hotel where we waited another hour for our room to be ready. Mary was extremely cranky – “I thought they had early check-in” – and at the end of the wait we were both asleep on the couch, which I’m sure they appreciated.
But we did get an early check-in. A young man took us to our room, which was one of only two rooms with a private terrace, and showed us all the amenities. There was a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates. The bathroom was gorgeous and included a large sink and a heated towel rack. We slept for a few hours. I woke up first and took the most amazing shower. The water pressure was perfect and the amenities by Diptyque smelled wonderful and were very high quality. We both especially enjoyed the hand lotion – I took a little bit in a bottle I had, but we plan to buy more to bring home, when we find a Diptyque store.
The room was a little cold and dark, so I got back into bed in the provided bathrobe. Around 5:30 we ordered room service – a hamburger and a salad – which the young man set up on the table on our patio. Before I could even get outside it started to rain, so we ate our dinner at the end of the bed. We were asleep by 8:30 pm. The bed and sheets were SO comfortable and we both slept about 9 hours. In the morning, around 6 am, we walked over to the Arc de Triomphe, or, more accurately the street across from the Arc de Triomphe. There were multiple lanes of non-stop traffic which we would have died trying to cross. I think there was a way to get there underground, but Mary didn’t want to go underground, so she took some photos from across the street. There were no pedestrians around and nothing was really open, except McDonald’s. I was curious about the McDonalds menu and went inside. They had a very fancy display of pastries, but I couldn’t look at the menu, because the touchscreen seemed to require an ID.
We walked back to the hotel and had a spectacular breakfast in their parlor. There were multiple courses, beginning with assorted pastries and breads (possibly the best croissant either of us has ever had), un boisson chaud (hot beverage), and juice. Next came scrambled eggs for Mary and an omelette for me. Third, we each got a huge fruit plate with perfect mango and pineapple, strawberries, a lingonberry, blueberries and blackberries. I mixed my fruit with a delicious plain yogurt. (I love that at both hotels so far, the yogurt is plain. I am always so disappointed in vanilla yogurt.) There were two more courses, a plate of cold cuts and a selection of mature cheeses, but they never brought that to us, which was fine because we were both quite full. I’d say this was in my top three breakfasts of all time.
Edit from Mary: 100% agree – that bread was so amazing that I am advocating for going back for breakfast Monday on our way to Aix-les-Bains!
Back in the room I slept more. Then we packed, checked out at 1, and took an Uber to our next stop, the Hyatt. The Champs Elysee, where we had walked earlier, was now teeming with tourists – we were pleased that we had had it all to ourselves.
I was looking forward to the Hyatt because the room looked bigger in the picture online than our quite small Balzac room, and because it is a huge conference hotel so people would be paying less attention to us. We always feel a bit like riffraff in the fancy hotels.
One thing I had been anxious about was communicating with people in Paris. I had read they don’t like it when Americans try to speak French and that they get annoyed very quickly. This was not the case at the Hotel Balzac, nor at the Hyatt, where our room was ready immediately – yahoo! The woman who checked us in told me breakfast was included in the rate. This was a pleasant surprise to me. I hadn’t paid extra for breakfast.
Our room has a great view of the Eiffel Tower, which was wonderful last night when it got dark, and the tower lit up, next to a bright moon. Unfortunately, spending our first night at the most luxurious hotel we’ve ever been in, would set us up for disappointment anywhere else, although that’s not quite the right word, because we’re still very happy. However, this is the worst designed hotel room I’ve ever been in. It turns out I was looking at the wrong picture on the Hyatt website. This room is actually smaller than our room at the Balzac. One side of the bed has the reading light and the other side has the bedside table. I have a tiny very low ledge I can barely fit my CPAP machine on, but Mary helped me fashion my suitcase into a secondary bedside table. The bed is comfortable and the room is sunny. However the bathroom is a little cray cray. There are no towel racks and no place to hang anything. The shower is in a very narrow bathtub that is about two feet tall. The drains (in both the shower and the sink) don’t drain well, so I stood in two inches of water and the shower curtain stuck to me as I was showering. There’s also no nightlight so getting to the bathroom in the middle of the night involved touching every surface as I felt my way to the toilet. I washed some clothes this morning but there is nowhere to hang them. (Mary said, “Did you see there’s a clothesline in here?”referring to the line the shower curtain hangs on. It is about 8 feet high!!! She is tall enough that she was able to hang a shirt there, but it’s definitely not a clothesline.)
I will finish this by attempting to post some photos and in the next one I will tell you about our day yesterday, which did not involve any Paris sightseeing.
