Date Posted	February 06, 2006
News Title	Check your bags and stay a while at the “Hotel des Mousquetaires”
Posted By	Bobby Bernshausen
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Most people go to hotels for rest and relaxation, but when two retired American professors come across an old French hotel for sale, they take on the responsibilities and renovations of the abandoned lodge. Wayne Snyder tells their tale in his new book, Hotel des Mousquetaires. Originally from California, Snyder earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University in economics and spent much of his career working as professor and advisor to developing countries. While on a trip to do archival research with his wife, Nathalie, they came across the handsome hotel selling for a very reasonable price. Intrigued by the excitement of renovating the Basque inn, they soon became the owners of the Hotel des Mousquetaires and embarked on the adventures (and occasional misadventures) of fixing up, staffing, and running the hotel among their French neighbors. Among the challenges the budding hoteliers faced involved a Canadian film company working on a quasi-documentary about the Three Musketeers. Wanting to use the hotel as headquarters for two weeks of shooting, the moviemakers enticed the couple into opening the hotel earlier than expected, thus setting off a chain of stressful workdays from dawn until dusk. Hotel des Mousquetaires is Snyder’s first book, however his previous works on economic problems facing developing countries have appeared in print. He and his wife are currently undergoing archival research of the socio-economic issues of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries in France. Hotel des Mousquetaires is available in softcover (ISBN 1-58939-773-8) from Virtualbook-worm.com, Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com. The book can also be ordered from most bookstores around the United States and the United Kingdom. -30-
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