Sad dollar, happy euro

The honeymoon reservation process has begun!

We'll be in France for 13 nights, and we're planning to spend the first 3 in Paris, the next 5 in Nice, and the final 5 in Paris. In France, there is always the risk that train workers will be striking, so it's best to include a cushion around all train travel--just in case.

Our plan is to use B's Starpoints (from Starwood hotels--Westin, Le Meridien, Sheraton, and similar) to pay for the 5 nights in Paris and the 5 nights in Nice, but that still leaves us 3 nights in Paris to figure out on our own. I found a top-rated (on tripadvisor) and not-eye-bulgingly-expensive Parisian hotel for the first 3 nights and booked it, a transatlantic telephone call involving one person speaking very bad French (moi) and one person speaking English with an incomplete understanding of subordinate conjunctions. I think we sorted out the details via email.

Almost immediately after I booked, I started rethinking the cost. With the dollar-to-euro conversion rate getting more and more desperate, I was concerned that we'd get stuck paying a huge sum of money for a not-that-great hotel. I decided more research was necessary.

I found a great deal on the Starwood website--for $60 and 4,000 Starpoints, you get one night's stay--perfect! Even if we had to buy Starpoints, we'd still come out ahead. Unfortunately, a telephone call to Starwood revealed that Starwood hotels in Paris aren't accepting that deal during our honeymoon. Swell. And further doom and gloom was revealed--the availability for the first three days at the hotel was limited already--no standard rooms, only suites available. Not good! I decided I had better book the other 5 days in Paris then and there, and shockingly enough, they let me, even though I didn't know B's Starwood number. Such tight security.

We can't book the Nice hotel until B earns a few more Starpoints, though that shouldn't be too difficult with all of his travel, and he's going to transfer his AmEx points to Starpoints, so we'll be there in no time.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do about the first 3 days...I've found some alternative hotels that are more reasonably priced but need to do further research on tripadvisor.