So our lives have become,…… (YUK ALERT!)….. obsessive interest in bowel habits.   (Frequency, timing, consistency and volume)……  dashes to out of hours medical centres with wound infections  and forgotten wound staples…….  Sleeping,….. eating …..and relaxing.  (plus the darned racing commentary is back!.  Aggh!)

Both the twelve year old out of hours GP   (it is always worrying when not only policemen become children,  but quite senior doctors too!)   and the over camp nurse ,  involved in the above two incidents, looked at Michaels  discharge documents and then gravely said “hmm, big operation”!  and   “long time in hospital”!… as if we didn’t know.

..and the  consultant surgeon rang Michael personally this morning.  I don’t know whether to interpret that as he is just a very caring doctor, or he is very worried about his patient!   We still  have no news on the histology of the lymphoma and required treatment, but we need to concentrate on getting Michael better first.

Otherwise, we are much more settled at home.  The patient  understandably sleeps a lot.   I am  enjoying trying to cook nutritional meals and also rather enjoying this enforced semi retirement.  Makes me think I really would like it to be permanent.

Before Michael was diagnosed with cancer, we had booked flights for a weekend in Paris for June 13th to visit the prestigious  Prix de Dianne horse racing at Chantilly.  Of course Michael is not allowed to fly for 6 weeks and realistically the trip would be too tiring for him.

 Now he is home and seems to be recovering Michael is encouraging me to take this trip alone because he says I    “Need a break!”.     I don’t know if he wants a break from me,  or would rather stay with his daughter for the weekend.

The trouble is that we had not booked any accommodation,  so I have spent the last couple of days,  trying to find a suitable palace to stay.

Anybody who has ever tried to trawl through the hundreds of apartments and hotels on offer in Paris will understand what a nightmare (literally) task this is.  I am now dreaming about Paris accommodations .. and not in a good way!

 The stress of the cancer and surgery is nothing compared to the mind boggling stress this task creates and this has been   exacerbated by the fact that I am trying to book with less than three weeks to go. ….. Therefore most of the cheap and the good have already been reserved.

My criteria  is.

1.  Needs to be in the 5th, 4th or 3rd arrondissements, or at least on line 7 near place d’Italie in the 13th, so I can be near my friends, Muriel and PlaneJane, who were going to come to the races with us, complete with hats!

2. Budget, preferably under £500,  600 euro for five nights

3.Freewi-Fi.

4.Decent reviews.

5.Decent shower.

6. preferably a kettle

If it is on a high floor, aircon would be nice

and a terrace or view would be nice too.

So here are the contenders.

1. Studio near Notre dame.  New,  Well situated, centrally located between my two friends.  Good reviews. 450 euro + 50 euro security deposit.

Negatives. … Ground floor, tiny, Security deposit 300euro.  ( but I am told I can give a cheque)

http://www.vrbo.com/353617?cid=E_inquiryconfirmation_DB_T_20130528_propid_text_LOTH_2&utm_source=DB&utm_medium=email&utm_term=20130528&utm_content=propid_text_t_loth2&utm_campaign=inquiryconfirmation

2. Studio in Marais . Well situated, 450 euro +50 euro cleaning.

Negatives…high security fee of 500 euro cash  puts me off.

http://www.homelidays.com/paris-04/studio330577fr1.htm

3. Studio on booking.com. Rue Laplace in the 5th. well situated, no security or cleaning fees.

Negatives. …no wi-fi. and reviews complain about collecting key from another part of city.  .  £520= 645 euro.

http://www.booking.com/hotel/fr/appartement-rue-laplace.en-gb.html?aid=311076;label=studio-xl55eDx8ARnfZJDxZC%2ANrQS11114967420%3Apl%3Ata%3Ap1%3Ap2%3Aac690300%3Aap1t1%3Aneg;sid=31ad43c862fb0f3981dc13dfe9bbfa8e;dcid=1

4 hotel Saint Charles. 680 euro. with two free breakfasts.  Ideal,  But a little bit further out that I would like and a bit more expensive. Very good reviews. can’t see kettle but one reviewer says there was no milk in the room, so matbe there is..

http://hotel-saint-charles.com/

Edit…I have ust found another hotel near Le Goblins metro in line 7

Hotel Aladin

539 euro

http://www.hotel-aladin.fr/

The search continues.

Love Denise