Paris, 1st afternoon

Despite our stressful journey between Amsterdam and Paris, I was glad that our hotel was just as we expected.  As I mentioned before, we used Starwoods points to stay for free throughout our vacation.  In Paris, we stayed at the Le Meridien Etoile.  The location was perfect since the Metro is literally a few steps away.  However, be warned that this chain is really meant for business travelers and not your average tourist.  I read some not so nice reviews on TripAdvisor about the "cold" atmosphere, but I didn't think it was an issue at all.

Not only were we able to check in and get a room right away (we arrived a little earlier than their check in time), the manager and staff helped us get set up on the business computers to take care of our theft issue/fraud alert set-up, etc.

Our room was big for European standards IMO:

The bathroom was decent sized but the sliding pocket door didn't seem to lock out the, ahem, noises very well.  Heh.  Just wanted to warn anyone who is still squeamish about that stuff.  Mr. J and I thought it was hilarious.

View from our window, with some good zooming:

For our first night in Paris, we decided to stick close to our hotel.  We were exhausted from the stress of having our stuff stolen and all we wanted to do was eat, drink, and fall asleep soon after. 

We chose an Italian restaurant called Bellagio (101 Avenue des Ternes), right around the corner from the hotel.  We were not disappointed.  I'm a little sad that I didn't bother to take pictures, but oh well.  Here's some pics from the restaurant's website:

Photo credit: Bellagio

Photo credit: Bellagio