The Plan

The plan is to first fly to Turkey for a week and a half of more adventurous travel.  This simply means that we are going to someplace we've never been with the intention of seeing as much as possible in a short time.

After that, we fly to Paris, for six weeks of laid-back, live-like-a-Parisian residency.  The most strenuous thing we hope to do in Paris is eat a croissant.

Here is a map of Turkey (click on map to make bigger):

We are flying to Istanbul, which is labeled "A" on the map.  We have a hotel booked in the Sultanahmet district, which is the heart of the old town.  After 4 days of tramping around Istanbul and getting over jet lag, we catch an early morning flight to Izmir, rent a car, and drive south to the ancient Greek city of Ephesus which is labeled "B". The next day we take an evening flight back to Istanbul and stay there another 3 days. There is a lot to see in Turkey, and certainly 10 days is not enough time to see much, but the destination of this trip really is Paris.

From Istanbul, we fly to Paris.  We are in Paris for six weeks. On the third week there, our close friends Dayton & Gaye and Greg & Lauri arrive for eight and ten days respectively.  Together, the six of we are going to have a lot of fun.  We already have reservations in famous, hard to get into restaurants (e.g. Frenchies).

Here is a map showing our apartment location in Paris (click on map to make bigger):

The apartment is in the 4th Arrondissement, just across the river from the Ile Saint Louis.  This area is known as the "Marais" and is famous for being the eclectic 'right bank' locale.  We are close to metro lines, food stores, restaurants, boulangeries and fun.  It seems like a good area to be based.  We plan on walking a lot, but since it is a rainier and darker part of the year, it will be very nice to be close to the metro lines (lines 1 and 7).

Of course, renting an apartment is a bit of roll of the dice.  If it's awful, you can't just check out and move down the street the way you can with a hotel.  We tried to find a quiet location, but that is always difficult in an inner city.  The street is not a major thoroughfare, but it is a bus route.  As long as the neighbors are quiet, we should be okay. 

Here are a few photos from the apartment rental agency's website (just press F5 to watch it again or click on the picture to get bigger images):