We asked at the desk if we could borrow plates from the kitchen and he grumbled about how we weren't supposed to eat in the rooms but he didn't hesitate to get us plates, knives and forks. I promised we would clean up and we would leave no mess. We did that. I washed the dishes in the bathroom sink and Bob took all the trash out to dispose at the corner public trash can after he returned the plates. I picked up the 6 rice kernels which fell on the carpet. We are such good hotel guests...
By the way, I had been worrying so much about how mean and rude the French are about Americans not being able to speak the language... but our experience so far has been much better than last time. The hotel desk people speak English and are super nice about it. When I apologize they assure me it's no problem, they speak English all day for their job.
In fact I think I just made a penpal friend with the nice woman, Alexandra, who works the desk sometimes during the day and when she was on hold about our shuttle ride to the airport on Tuesday, she told me she collects US quarters with the states on them and its her big obsession. She says she sometimes dares to ask American guests at the hotel if they have any that she didn't have on her list. I told her I actually didn't have any on me for this trip but would love to send her some... just give me the list and I would send them to the hotel with attention to her name. She was thrilled and ran to the car to get her notebook with the list and she wrote an envelope with her home address. I told her I have collected them too and and would love to send her some and she said she likes to write letters, she so she would write me back and I said so do I and I would like writing to her! So that's pretty neat, I'm looking forward to that.
