John and I wake up early. It has been a difficult night for sleeping. We are on the first floor (U.S. second floor) and since the air conditioning has not been turned on for the season yet, we have the windows open. All night long there is revelry going on in the square below. Around 5:50 AM I give up and read the news. John wakes up shortly thereafter.
Shortly before 7:15 AM there is a noise at the door. There is no knock. Someone is putting a key in the lock. They open our door which is around the corner from the bed so I can’t see who it is. I call out, “Hello?” A man says “I am sorry” and leaves. So some man has used a pass key to get into our locked room with the Do Not Disturb sign on the door. We are mightily disturbed.
We call down to the desk. No one knows anything. The manager comes up and talks to John. He says, did you lock your door? There is no way to lock the door any further because the door locks automatically and can only be opened with a key. The night manager’s voice sounds suspiciously like the voice we heard when the man who came in spoke.
We are pretty freaked by the whole thing. When we leave there is no explanation, they are just sorry we had a problem. We feel like the people at the front desk know what is going on. Who else would have a key to our room? And why would they want to get into our room at 7:15 in the morning? It wasn’t the cleaning people who are women and were not even working yet.
This has put a real damper on the day. We drive through beautiful countryside on the way to Bourges, talking periodically about what has happened. We stop for lunch at a rest stop on the highway. They have a map and we are smack dab in the middle of France. We have plates full of vegetables and bread.
We reach Bourges around 3 PM. John and I, exhausted from the activities of the day, decide to just have some quiet time until dinner. Our room is fine and has a pretty view of the garden in the back. We have all day tomorrow to explore what looks to be a very beautiful city.
Around 7 PM we take a walk around the old section of the city. We are eager to explore the cathedral and the palaces tomorrow. There are also a lot of well-preserved half-timbered houses. We will have to check in at the Visitor’s Information bureau to see if there is a walking tour.
We find a restaurant that the hotel has recommended. It has a few Americans, some Australians and French couples out to dinner. I figure that the hotels have all decided this is the best offering for a Sunday night when almost all the restaurants are closed. (ditto for Monday)
We start our dinner with an amuse bouche and a couple of salads. My salad has vegetables in it. John’s salad has salmon in it. Both will make a reprise in the second course. John and I share a dessert. That’s a rarity since I don’t really like sweet stuff and I definitely don’t like to share.
Looking forward to a full and interesting day tomorrow.