We’re here! YEA! We found our hotel in Paris, the Hotel De L’Avenue, after only a few wrong turns and a FB message from Amanda stating our lost in Paris status to which some replied, “too bad.” (LOL)! I’m guessing no one is feeling too sorry for us. This picture was actually taken the morning we left not the even we arrived, but that’s a minor detail I’m sure doesn’t really matter to much to anyone other myself.

When I began searching for a place to stay in Paris, I had only two criteria:

1. It had to be close to the Republique train station for reasons I mentioned in an earlier post

2. It needed to be a budget place because we are, afterall, on a budget! For me, part of the excitement of taking a vacation is planning it in a way that we can see and do the greatest number of things with the least amount of expense. Motel costs certainly add up quickly. I spent DAYS searching for our hotels because while I wanted a budget one, I also needed to make sure we didn’t unintentionally put ourselves in harm’s way.

I found Hotel De L’Avenue – Paris on the TripAdvisor website where it ranked #401/1925. It fit within my % guideline, it was in a safe area of Paris, and it met the two requirements above so I booked it.

A few weeks before our trip, I emailed to confirm our reservation. After not hearing anything back from them after 4 or 5 emails, I started to get worried about whether or not we were confirmed because I also happened to notice that I hadn’t heard anything from them since giving my credit card number! ACK!

So, I sent one last message via their website before I was going to start looking for another hotel. A very nice man named Thomas called from the hotel about 5 minutes after I posted the message on their website. He confirmed that they had received my emails and had replied to them. I have on idea why I didn’t get them. But, I’m relieved that he ammended our reservation regarding the types of beds, answered my question about their internet connection, and confirmed the other details.

Now THAT is what I call customer service! I was so impressed by their customer service that I even signed up to be a poster on Trip Advisor just so I could leave a positive review of the excellent customer service they provided before we even arrived.

Upon our arrival, a very nice lady checked us in and gave us a packet of information from Corinne who I mentioned in an early blog entry. She was very helpful: trying to call Corrine to tell her we had arrived although she wasn’t able to get the call to go through because something in the #s was mixed up; sending our luggage up on the elevator; orienting us with maps of their vicinity, etc. And, the best part is she spoke pretty good English which is definitely a plus when booking a hotel in another country.

Here are a few pictures from our hotel. As you can see, it was a decent size. I was expecting teeny tiny rooms and bathrooms based on the many general reviews I’ve read about hotels in Europe. I didn’t find this one to be any smaller than a double room would have been here in the US at say a Comfort Inn, Days Inn, or other similar hotel chain. The girls and I stayed in this room which had two queen beds.

Our room was situated at the back of the hotel opposite the street which made it a very quiet space. We had two large balcony type windows which looked out onto a little garden area.
The only thing I find odd about this room is the pillow. It is one long round pillow that two people share. That didn’t work so well since I like to have two pillows all to myself!! Michaela asked why the girls and I found this so strange because she didn’t see it as being any different than sharing the blankets.
There was plenty of floor space for all of us to spread out our things for the 3 days we were here.

We did have a few things which were inconvenience enough that I don’t know if I would stay at this hotel again or not.1. They said they had a WiFi connection. My computer found the connection, but couldn’t log on. It appears that the hotel staff should have given us a code or something, but no one ever did. I don’t know if that’s because they weren’t computer savvy enough to know what it was or if they weren’t understanding what I was asking about the WiFi. They did, however, have a computer anyone could use in the lobby, but that didn’t work so well for trying to upload any of our pictures to photobucket and then to the blog. The man who was at the desk the first night was not helpful at all. However, the second night Thomas (from the phone call mentioned above) was there and he was VERY helpful. He even let me use his cord to connect my camera to their computer so I could upload a few pictures to the website. I was too tired to try to mess with it much and there were other people waiting to use the computer. Since being able to stay in touch is of such high importance to us, I would most likely not book here again for this reason alone. If that doesn’t matter to you then this would be a nice hotel for a very good price given it’s proximity to all of the major sightseeing areas and the Republique station.2. We had something somewhat funny happen the first night and that is the fire alarm went off while I was downstairs working on the computer. The girls all came running downstairs to evacuate the building, but the grandmas never came down. The desk clerk didn’t seem too worried saying the alarm had gone off because someone was smoking in their room even though it is a nonsmoking hotel. Since I was downstairs using the computer I heard the desk clerk talking to someone on the phone and it became apparent he didn’t know how to shut off the alarm system. UGH! That means this beeping noise went on all night LONG! It became much quiter after a little while, but then it went off again a second time very early in the morning. That was quite annoying that the desk clerk didn’t know how to reset the system.The “funny” in the fire alarm ordeal is that the next morning we found out the reason why the grandmas never evacuated their room when either alarm went off and that’s because they thought it was their alarm clock going off. (LOL). So, overall. A nice motel. Reasonable price. I’ll probably look elsewhere next time to try to find a place which has WiFi. I’m going to post this map here on the blog so the next time I’m in Paris (wishful thinking) I’ll know exactly where this hotel was.