Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Shameless Request for Couch in Paris

Soooo, don't hate me but...I'm going back to Paris. Friday. For work.

In a bizarre yet wonderful coincidence, my mother is leaving the country for the first time in over a decade to go to Paris. This weekend. It's so cool!

Here's the thing. I arrive Saturday night. My work hotel starts Sunday night. My mom is traveling with friends and has a place for me to stay, IF they arrive. She used to work for an airline and is traveling with airline friends on standby, so their arrival in a timely manner is iffy, probably 50/50. So I need to line up a backup place to stay on Saturday. I'm trying to avoid booking a hotel, because I won't know until Saturday if they're going to get there or not, so I will have to pay either way because I'll be outside the cancellation window. Since there's a good chance I won't end up staying in the hotel I don't want it to be too expensive, but since there's *also* I good chance I *will* end up staying in it, I don't want it to be too far away or grubby either. The only hostel that has openings has absolutely dismal reviews.

I have actually hosted a couple of people in DC through the Couchsurfing website, but have not had any luck finding a place to (possibly) sleep in Paris through it, and lovely Isabelle of Kitty Couture is going to a family reunion for the weekend (so I'm double glad I got the chance to meet up with her last week!).

Soooo, can anybody in Paris offer me a tentative couch to sleep on? I will store my luggage at Gare du Nord and let you know by afternoon if I need to stay, and will be completely on your schedule as to when to arrive.

Next post will be about sewing, I promise! (Or possibly Paris.)

5 comments:

Kitty Couture said...

I am so, so sorry. And so bummed.
You could totally stay over on Sunday, so if it's possible to arrange this with your work hotel (swap your Sunday night with your Saturday night), let me know. I could ring them up for you if you want.

Fingers crossed that you'll find something. At first I thought you could have stayed at my sister, but she won't be in Paris either, duh. I'm not sure whom among my friends I could venture to ask...
Man, this is the one weekend in months that I won't be home!

Elaray said...

Eww. I think I do hate you. But, I'll get over it. Good luck and I hope everything works out for you and your Mom.

Meg said...

No help here, but I wouldn't I love to say something like you can stay in my flat in the 7th... Good luck!

Gretchen the Household Deity said...

Isabelle--No worries! Definitely don't feel bad or give it a thought. I can well afford a hotel, I'm just cheap. LOL

Elaray--thanks for the good wishes!

Lindsay t--don't we all!!!!! The apartment we stayed in last week was just lovely and made me seriously think that I need a little pied a terre in Paris. We walked by a lot of real estate agents with fourth floor walkups selling for 350,000+ Euros, so I think I'm going to have to wait a little longer for that dream to come true. The guys who own the apartment are smart investors, though. They fill it up most of the time with vacationers (I suspect more than paying the mortgage) and have about four weeks a year in it themselves. It's just capital and logistics that are stopping me...

Anonymous said...

I'm an American woman living in the 11th and I can offer you a place to stay Saturday night. I sent my contact details to Isabelle as I could not find an email link on your blog.

Karen