Bel Ami Hotel

When going to Paris in August, it’s important to remember one thing; expect the unexpected. The French are famed for their cuisine, so when my husband got food poisoning on our last night, Saturday, it was a shock.
It had been wise to book a hotel whose staff spoke good English. As good as my O level French is, I could not have ever remembered how to say, “My husband has vomited 15 times already, could we not vacate the room until 5pm?” As check-out was midday, the manager of the hotel Bel Ami was concerned but a little strict.
“Till 3pm” she said.
“Could I come back later and extend the time till 5pm if he’s still ill?”
“OK.”
A dodgy chicken meal was not what we had bargained for at Conran’s restaurant Alcazar. The place was nice enough, trendy even, and only one out of a party of four got sick, but it still ruined a previously pleasant long weekend spend reading English newspapers in cafes and wandering round the shops, which were being wandered around by other tourists (August is the month the Parisians leave en vacance).
I did get the hotel to let my husband convalesce until 5pm, before getting into a taxi and going to Gare De Nord. Let’s be thankful for small mercies etc etc.