Totally Broken Down Trip to Paris

My trip to Paris started on Thursday morning; I woke up and almost was late checking out of the Renaissance. I went w/o breakfast/lunch until right before my train ride. I picked up some last min gifts and went to Centraal station. I bought a small pizza, sandwich and croissant w/ham/cheese which were good, good and ok respectively.

The train ride went smoothly, except when you consider it was an hour late. Unfortunately, I did not print out ANY of my itinerary and realized this as I got off the train. I asked the cab dispatcher to get me to the Marriott Vendome, and he had NO CLUE what i was talking about. He just told the cabbie to go to the vendome and look around. We drove to the Ritz and stopped. I got out to ask and they pointed in a general direction to the southwest. I walked, went in the Hotel Vendome, and that was wrong, they gave me more directs. Stopped in 1 more hotel and they said I was warm; "go around the block to the opposite side." So I finally made it.

Once inside, the front desk told me I had no reservation. I realized in horror that I didn't get a confirm email although I remember picking through my hotel preferences when I booked it online. Fortunately, the nice people had a room available until my checkout date of Sunday, so it was all square. 80k Marriott Points down the drain.

My first room looked AMAZING, but had a slight hint of smoke, so I moved. The room has a DVD player, nice phillips TV w/ glass border, amazing cabinet setup, comfortable King bed, beautiful bathroom, and best of all, BVLGARI Bath Products!!!!

I settled in, then went to Chez Flottes to eat authentic French. Had some salmon tartar (looked like a less than uncooked beef patty (very pink)), then a duck w/these cheese mashed potatoes. I've never had anything like them. You know how those potatoes should kind of fall if you tip your spoon? These dripped almost like syrup, but would stay connected like bubble gum. It was good, but I couldn't finish them because it was too cheesy for an asian like me.

I topped it off w/a caramelized rice pudding. I almost sent it back because I thought it was creme brulee, but they MEANT to make the top hard! It was delicious!!!

I must warn you though, I don't know how other people feel, but I felt really intimidated in Paris because I didn't speak ANY French. It also didn't help that I just learned some Dutch and most people look the same in Paris as in Amsterdam (much like when I was speaking predominantly chinese for 2 months then went to Japan for a weekend and got confused when everyone did NOT speak chinese (yeah we all look the same to me too). I really found it difficult to figure out what to say to people upon meeting them (I even botched bonjour a couple times). I really like saying Sa Va (how are you) and au Revouir (bye).