First day in Paris Paris, France

Paris, France

Apartment: http://www.vacationinparis.com/apts/id_ 122.htm

Edinburgh: Our last morning.

This morning was like all of the others; grey and cold. We braved it though and took an early walk in to the New Town area. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of the more vibrant commercial and shopping district hub of Edinburgh. Well, we walked all of the New Town area but we didn’t find it. Il have to google to see where this part is, if it exists at all. It was well after 9am by the time we were striding these streets but there still few people out and about. We were walking down

the main street, George St, but there was little sign of life and only some tired looking retail outlets. I kept thinking how different our George St would appear at the same time on a week day morning!

I’m not sad to be leaving here today

. Edinburgh falls, for me, into the same category as Ireland: glad I’ve seen it, I’ve had a good time but, I’d never want to come back. Our apartment was absolutely lovely and in the best location for visiting this city. So, make a note of it in case you ever venture here. Just don’t ask me to join you!

We packed up our things and ventured out at about 11.30 to catch a cab to the airport. This guy was like nearly every other person we’d

chatted to. As soon as you said you were visiting they’d jump straight in and ask what you thought of Edinburgh. We lied, sort of, a

nd said we loved it! Truth is though, it’s cold and bleak and hard work. The cabbie commented to us though how lucky we’d been with the weather! Mark and I took a look at each other when he said this. ‘Luck’ isn’t qui

te the word I’d have used to describe this. Clearly though, weather is a relative concept here in Edinburgh. If its not snowing or raining and its above zero, then, the weather is great!

Our flight to Paris was with Easy Jet and le

ft at 2pm. Easy Jet don’t issue seat numbers for these flights so it was rather a scramble to grab a seat but we were able to get two together. The Scottish Captain announced that the weather in Paris would be somewhat similar to Edinburgh which brought Mark a bit of a chuckle indeed. Mark didn’t think anywhere could quite match Edinburgh. In some sort of support of our scepticism at this comparison, as soon as we had taken off and reached cruising altitude, we were greeted with our fir

st view of the sun and blue skies for some days.

Arrival into Paris! (5pm)

Well, it was about 16 degrees when we got into Paris and the sun was shining under a clear blue sky. Heaven! How the pilot had

ever thought that this was ‘similar’ to Edinburgh’s 5 degree bleak grey day is beyond me.We took a taxi from the airport to our apartment and eventually found 30 rue Saint Andres des Arts.

The apartment is small but charming and in a great location with a strong local vibe pulsing through the area. We ventured o

ut to get some supplies and then headed back out for dinner. Our pre-requisite was that the restaurant had to be fairly busy. We didn’t ha

ve to venture far as at 54 rue Saint Andes des Arts we found ‘Chez Caldez’. I had the best Onion Soup I’ve ever tasted! We were qu

ite tired after our rath

er busy day so headed home afterwards

and were back in by 9.30pm.