Wine For Misfits

It happened! I finally visited Paris. Now I have a reference point for when I visit the Parisian themed Metro Hotel in Petaluma.

While there weren’t as many knick-knacks around Paris as there were around the Metro, Paris does have their share of themed hotels.

This is perfect for somebody like me who looks up the keyword “quirky” when researching where to stay on a trip.

Let’s just say the Vice Versa is well deserving of their “quirky” keyword with their seven deadly sins theme.

Pleasurable but not Deadly

I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed with the seven deadly sins, but as a concept, I find them fascinating. 

Needless to say, I’m not a religious adult. Now that doesn’t mean I’m not filled with a ton of residual Catholic guilt that was instilled into me as a child, but I’ve learned how to live with it.

Kind of like my acid reflux. 

You Enter in Heaven

When the double doors slide open to Vice Versa, you step into heaven. The room is a pristine colorless palate, with angel wings and a unicorn head on the wall (because in heaven they only hunt mythological creatures), and friendly staff members in all white attire. 

Reception angels.

Now this was my first time traveling alone. My husband had work in Bordeaux, so we decided I’d fly out to France a week after him and we’d rendezvous in Paris.

At a seven deadly sins hotel.

Hella romantic.

As a late 30s woman who has seen the movie Taken multiple times, I was nervous about traveling alone.

It also did not help that my younger sister, who is well into her 20s, described solo female travel as “traumatizing”.

(Please Note: she has never traveled solo. Being dramatic runs in my family. Not to brag, but I took a Biology 101 class last semester and now I know the dramatics come from my mother’s alleles.) 

Luckily, getting from point A to Vice Versa was anything but traumatic, and I successful checked in with the help of an angel while sipping a double espresso in the lounge.  

The lounge had a serve-yourself bar with a wine and a cocktail machine. I’m going to pause here for a minute and discuss how cool of a concept the wine one is:

Pause: Wine Single-Glass Machine

This machine is quite clever.

A 5oz glass of wine is stored in an air-tight tube keeping it safe from oxygen. When you pick the wine you want, you place the tube into the machine where it will pour that delicious liquid into a glass. 

The machine knows which wine it’s pouring by scanning an RFID chip on the tube. This tells the machine how the wine should be aerated and the temperature it should be served at.

Ensuring every glass is perfectly presented. 

The problem with wine bottles is that the wine can go bad if you don’t drink the whole bottle. This means a loss of revenue for businesses, or bad customer experience if an employee accidentally serves old wine.

The tube format protects the wine ensuring a good customer experience, and prevents product loss by only serving one glass at a time.

With that said, I did not use the machine. My husband and I have no problem ordering and finishing an entire bottle.  

Now back to our regularly scheduled program. 

Unpause: Wrath Room

Since there are seven deadly sins, that means there are seven different themed rooms. 

Who would have thought?!

Despite sloth being the sin I’m most guilty of (followed closely by gluttony), I chose to stay in the wrath room. 

The room online looked fun and colorful, so I had to see it in person. When I told the angel I’d like the wrath room her response was, “Americans always choose that one.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. It’s an American trait to choose wrath? And I just helped reinforce the trait? I’m sure there’s a lot to unpack there, but that’s for a different blog topic.

She did explain the French find it a little scary. I was surprised because of all the bright colors. It seemed so playful.

But then the next morning I woke up to this:

Okay, I see how it could be scary. 

Every room features a mural behind the bed and then a ceiling graphic.  

Except for lust. 

Lust features mirrors on the ceiling. 

I think you can guess why. 

Gluttony

There is one themed gluttony room downstairs, so it may be hard to book. Luckily, you can get your gluttony fix in the dining room and eat amongst the pink and white walls, sit on cartoon cupcakes, and enjoy teapot lighting.  

The hotel offers breakfast which you can opt to include with your reservation or pay for separately. Their spread includes quintessential French pastries like crepes and croissants along with eggs and sausages. 

But hands down the best part of breakfast was the espresso machine. 

I’m highly under-caffeinated whenever I travel.  At home I typically have three cups of coffee in the morning, followed by a cup of coffee at the office (back when I had an office to begrudgingly go to), then an after-lunch cup to kick the 2pm sleepiness. 

So buying a double espresso in the morning just doesn’t cut it. When you get breakfast though, you can drink as many double espressos as needed.

The magic number for me is three to feel normal and a fourth for funsies because I like to test my anxiety. 

Vanity/Pride

When we first booked our Paris trip, we only booked it for two days because we were flirting with the idea of going to Champagne or another wine region.

But when the husband finally met up with me, we realized two days in Paris wasn’t enough and decided to stay.  

And, with that, we had the opportunity to book a second sin. 

We booked vanity next and the angels gave us a free upgrade to the deluxe room. The deluxe room has a bigger bathroom with dual sinks and a bathtub instead of a shower. 

The mural is a silly computer-generated picture with a few items misaligned. Frankly, it’s my standard of work: the “it’s good enough” standard. 

But, the mural isn’t even the highlight of the room thanks to the plethora of gaudy décor and shiny gold tiles.

And while you’re in the bathroom, there are mirrors on all the walls so you never have to go without seeing how good looking you are.

Above the tub is a purple light that will shimmer in the bubble bath you have to take while looking at yourself in the mirror.

You’ll feel quite proud.

I can’t confidently say I preferred one theme over another. They both had a lot of details and I felt fully immersed.  

I can confidently say if you do visit this hotel, you’ll enjoy whichever room you get.

Hells Layer

So apparently there’s a spa area. We didn’t go to it because we didn’t see it on their website while in France. Now, we did see it on the site when we booked the hotel in the US. But instead of asking about it, we just assumed it must have been closed (we were tired and undercaffeinated). 

The spa has a steam shower which would have been lovely post ten-hour flight. So don’t do what we did and ask the angels about it. Or just press the -1 button on the elevator.

See what happens.

Neighborhood

The hotel is in a less touristy area. There were still a lot of people, but it was filled with locals and their small dogs.

Next to the hotel is a park where you can picnic or workout and about a block away is a laundromat if you want to pack light or didn’t take the humidity into account when packing.  

Vice Versa is only a 45-minute walk to the Eiffel Tower, a less than ten-minute walk to the metro (which was surprisingly easy to use), and is surrounded by plenty of restaurants and brasseries. 

Kitty Rating Score

TL;DR

Because Vice Versa is owned by a local chain with multiple hotels, it can’t earn the coveted 10/10 Kitties (only small businesses can earn that). But it can earn a 9/10 Kitties since it meets all the standards for a quirky hotel with friendly staff in a fantastic location. 

Oh, and it’s a great place to stay for a solo female traveler.