If you can’t make it home for Thanksgiving, Paris is a great second choice- though you can forget the turkey and stuffing, but may still have a chance for some pommes. That’s precisely what happened this year. We stayed in St. Germain at the Hotel Da Vinci, already outfitted for Christmas cheer, whose moody interior vibes and drizzly weather only added to the coziness. The hotel takes it name from the time the Mona Lisa was heisted and stashed at the hotel. Oh la la!

We chose a double room with a balcony and spa access. Oh la la! A thanksgiving feast indeed…well, kind of… A few weeks before the trip, we received a bit of an aggressive email from the property a bit angrily inquiring as to why we booked the spa access room (and had arranged with the hotel appointments) when the website clearly said the spa was closed. Well… nearly on the verge of just cancelling at this attitude, I explained to him that no, we had NOT seen this information, nor was it posted. He confirmed that indeed, it was not published at the time of our booking and suggested moving our appointments to the sister hotel. Not sure why the level of spiciness was needed, but…we stayed anyhow, mostly because the St. Germain location is perfection.

The room was to-be-expected Parisian small, but nice and well cleaned and maintained. The bed was comfortable enough despite the strange choice of wallpaper behind it.

A small desk worked well for serving champagne. I also like the labelled furniture in case you forgot where you were.

The bathroom was small but well appointed, also offering cozy robes and slippers, perfect for sitting outside on the balcony.

There was a large shower and small toilet area.

The balcony, was in fact…a balcony. I had visions of my head of us sipping champagne and overlooking the streets of Paris below or across rooftops and sunsets. I had no idea that the balcony meant interior and at quite the lackluster view. You could see straight into whatever was across the building which seemed to be a well attended brothel. It definitely provided some laughs, but I’m disappointed to spend more that I normally would have on a romantic room only to find this.

The charming view.

While everyone at the hotel was lovely, location was good, housekeeping on point, it was the rude email and dodgy balcony that probably wouldn’t find me staying here when we return. Hopefully if you give it a try, the spa will be open and you’ll save yourself some wrath of the management.