Although a sad family event brought us back to Paris in September-October, we experienced different slices of life in the City of Lights: lawyers (the specialist who deals with official documents: "notaire"), the FISC (France's equivalent of the IRS), real estate agents, etc. After all was done, we took one of those "get-away-from-it-all" trip: we went back to London and to Edinburgh for ten days or so.

In London, we stayed in the South Kensington area; there are lovely boutique hotels there and streets are inviting (we stayed at the Boutique Hotel 54);  ; it makes me feel like I am in a small provincial town, yet museums and department stores are within a few blocks -- one of my favorites is the Victoria and Albert Museum, it's different everytime I visit it; to go further away, an Underground station is always nearby.  Knowing London so well, we returned to our usual haunts, except for a dinner at the Rasoi, a magnificent Indian restaurant, and then flew to Edinbugh where we had never been.

Our chosen hotel was brand new and quite amazing.  The Missoni was designed and decorated by the famous Italian family, until then especially well-known the world over, for its beautiful knits -- I understand they have developped a line just for Target, in the United States!  Upon arrival, we were greeted by young men wearing black and while kilts, and once in the reception area we were dazzled by the beautiful contemporary and colorful furniture and displays.  Our room, though not large, was just as colorful and elegant, the slippers (which guests were invited to take home) and robes absolutely gorgeous, the soaps, shampoos and body creams were packaged in the lovely "missoni" colors; even the pad by the telephone sported those colors -- the espresso maker and coffee pods were available at no charge... We felt spoiled.  Good beginning for our visit!  In four days, we visited all the art museums, the historical museums and sights, ate like princes (the Wedgwood on the Royal Mall, is one of the best, bar none); I had a little bit of trouble understanding people who spoke with a Scottish accent, but my husband "interpreted".