Early morning on another hot day. Thankfully, this is the last day of this stuff. Don hasn’t been able to work outdoors taking portraits with his camera because it’s just been too darned hot! That means he’s been home in the afternoons for the past couple of days, which is why we’ve finalized some reservations for the trip.

My dear blogging friend, Linda, had passed along a link to a company that handled apartment rentals in Paris. She used them when she went to Paris five years ago. We were so excited when we saw their offerings and we finally narrowed it down to one in the 7th Arrondissement, near the Eiffel Tower. We emailed them with the dates (which were available for that apartment) and waited for them to get back to us. A day went by. Nothing. We emailed again. Yesterday morning, Don finally called them, and after listening to a detailed message from the company, left a message about our request.

We couldn’t understand why they weren’t responding. So I started to look at other rental companies and the offerings available were not nearly as nice as our first choice. In fact, they were sort of depressing. And there was very little available – apparently October is one of the peak months for tourism in Paris. I began to get suspicious. So I googled a question, “Has such and such a company gone out of business?” and up came a post on their Facebook page where they sadly announced that due to new regulations that had been put into place in Paris, they had to close their company last March. Dang! I was so disappointed. But in retrospect it all makes sense. Those apartments were too nice not to have been snapped up already. Why they still have the website up and running and/or haven’t changed the message on their voice mail, I’m not sure.

Anyway, we had to change gears. We looked at other apartments, but quickly pivoted to hotels. I wanted to stay in the 7th Arrondissement, but everything was too expensive. We loved a hotel in the Latin Quarter that a friend of Rick had suggested, but it was already booked. That hotel (we spoke to them on the phone) suggested another hotel and we called them. I used my limited French skills to chat and he said they had rooms available and we could book them online. But when we looked at the rooms, we were depressed. Brown bed covers, aging brown furniture, very little decoration. It was a good rate and it was in the 5th Arrondissement near the Sorbonne and Notre Dame.

But the rooms. Depressing. I found another hotel that cost a good deal more where the rooms had been decorated by the well known London designer David Hicks and they were light and beautiful. But…money, always a consideration for us. We went back to the first hotel.

And suddenly it hit me. We were going to be in Paris! It would be our 20th Anniversary! I wanted romantic. I wanted beautiful. I didn’t want to feel depressed every time I walked into the room. I’m not 20 years old, backpacking through Europe. I’m 65 and this might be the trip of our lifetime and we deserve some beauty! Yes, it would be expensive. Yes, every part of me was yelling, “but the price!”

But I’m thinking we won’t regret it for one minute.

So we did it. We booked a room for 7 days there, paid a higher price so that we could cancel if something came up at the last minute, and even added breakfast to the mix. And suddenly, I found myself so  excited to go to Paris!

Side note: It’s quite near the famous bookstore Shakespeare & Co. Hello!

Then, throwing caution to the winds, we booked two expensive tickets to see Ian McKellen in King Lear  in London. It’s a limited run and he has said this is the last big Shakespeare that he’ll do. We had looked at what was playing in London while we were going to be there, and nothing really interested us but this. All of the musicals playing in the West End are also running in NYC. It’s like there’s no difference between Broadway and London. But King Lear? Yes. To have the chance to see him live onstage playing the role of all roles is something we couldn’t pass up.

Don’s art work.

We just have to figure out accommodations in Edinburgh, book the train from Paris to London and we’re in good shape. But I’m taking a break today. That can come tomorrow.

Planning is exciting, but exhausting.

Happy Thursday.