Hotel Chevalier

Decided to focus "Catherine Week"--which is what I've been calling all the weeks my friends are visiting me (Stacy Week is next)--to one post on one particularly interesting evening.

As I had written before, C. booked a night at Hotel Raphael where Wes Anderson filmed "Hotel Chevalier", a short film featuring characters from The Darjeeling Limited. C. sometimes books a room for one night at luxurious hotel. This one was special since it was in Paris and we both share a love for Wes Anderson.

Walked in instantly greeted by a nice man in a longcoat. Hey grabbed our bags off us, we weren't even 5 steps in. We walked straight to the check-in. I hung back, observing the decor and the hotel inhabitants--very luxurious and a couple of businessmen at the bar.

Room 403. C. had asked for a "girly" room. The same guy that took our bags, I forgot his name, but a nice fellow, took us to our room. It was...It's hard to describe with words.It was like walking into a palace. Or a museum. He set our bags down in the bedroom area, and showed us all the features of the room and the bathroom. He had a sense of humor: "That is a blow dryer, not a phone, hahaha" when he showed us the dryer in the bathroom. It did look like a phone. He left us to our complimentary fruit basket. C. asked for champagne flutes and a bucket of ice since we bought some cheap champagne on the way.This was to be ours for one night.

We sat on the couch and vegged for a bit. We were tired from our morning trip to Versailles which was somewhat spoiled by bad weather. We poured champagne and toasted to ourselves and to "Mr. and Mrs. Catherine Fernandez" as the card in the fruit basket read. I took a bubble bath for the first time in a long time and had champagne next to me. It was wonderful. It's funny how simple things can make you feel so good.

Changed into pajamas. C. begged that I buy some matching pajamas so I can match with her, so I got some on the way to the hotel at Brooks Brothers where C. gets hers. Around 8 or 9, we both just fell right asleep on the most comfiest bed ever. I woke up at 10pm to hear C. ordering room service. She got us sandwiches.

I brought my laptop, and we played music from The Darjeeling Limited. When the server came with the tray of food, he didn't know where to put it since all the tables had something on it. C. just said, "Put it on the floor."

"On the floor?" he said incredulously. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." I stood by the door, trying not to laugh. The server bent down and said, "Very well" and put the tray on the floor. We sat on the floor eating the sandwiches. At one point, C. had grabbed mine accidentally and took a bite out of it. "Is that my sandwich?" I said, while she was holding it. "Oh. Yeah." She put it down and picked up hers. What a night.

We drank more champagne and talked aimlessly while music was playing. We put on our bathrobes and put the chairs out on the balcony and drank from there. We saw the searchlight from the Eiffel, but not the tower itself but we didn't mind it. C. lit match after match trying to light her cigarette until I finally lit it for her, cupping the light away from the cold wind.We talked about film, future, philosophy, and boys. While bundled in our robes and slippers, she said something very sweet that also broke my heart in a way: "You're a sweet girl. Please don't let anyone walk all over you." I was speechless. Not because it was true for my past, but because I could see it all happening in the future like it was supposed to happen.

We put the music on louder and danced in the room, drunk from champagne. At least I didn't have to worry about going home. We danced and danced, and then we lied down on the floor staring at the chandelier. Went to sleep around 3.

Woke up early and sat on the balcony in my robe and wrote some things I learned during C.'s stay here. Don't think I'll write about here, some things I get to keep to myself. We said goodbye to the room and checked out at noon. I'll never forget the night of luxury that I got to spend thanks to C.