{"id":101,"date":"2010-10-03T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-03T05:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/2010\/10\/paris-v-dubai.html"},"modified":"2012-10-28T15:59:10","modified_gmt":"2012-10-28T11:59:10","slug":"paris-v-dubai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/2010\/10\/paris-v-dubai.html","title":{"rendered":"Paris V Dubai"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I really enjoyed my 8 day vacation in Paris, but of course its also nice to be home. Back in the sandpit and back with the kitties, who I missed tons. It is also cooling down now a teeny-tiny smidge which is fabulous news I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ll agree.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_622\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-622\" style=\"width: 269px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/DSC02798.jpg\" alt=\"arc-de-triomphe\" title=\"arc-de-triomphe\" width=\"269\" height=\"400\" class=\"size-full wp-image-622\" srcset=\"https:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/DSC02798.jpg 269w, https:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/DSC02798-201x300.jpg 201w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 269px) 100vw, 269px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-622\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">[me at the Arc de Triomphe]<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe things that make Paris so different from Dubai really struck me on this trip, perhaps because we stayed a little longer this time.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nAnd I don&#8217;t just mean the weather and the obvious stuff but more things like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the number of sirens you hear there, all day and all night, be it the Police or an ambulance;<\/li>\n<li>not hearing the call to prayer 5 times a day;<\/li>\n<li>being able to sit at a pavement cafe, or in the park on a picnic, and enjoy a glass of wine;<\/li>\n<li>walking your a** off everyday, and really only buying what you can carry from the store;<\/li>\n<li>the very comprehensive bus service, no matter where we wanted to go there always seemed to be the right bus nearby;<\/li>\n<li>the small speciality shops everywhere, every few streets there is a bakery and a cheese shop and a butcher and a wine shop&#8230;;<\/li>\n<li>how helpful and friendly the residents are to one another on the bus or on the street;<\/li>\n<li>how many homeless people there are, and beggars too;<\/li>\n<li>how many people mutter to themselves as they walk along the street, quite a few crazies out there;<\/li>\n<li>that there is always something going on, turn a corner and there is a fete, or a protest, or a street party for Breast Cancer Awareness;<\/li>\n<li>how great the farmer&#8217;s markets are and how well supported, the fresh produce is outstanding and such good value;<\/li>\n<li>how many people cycle, to work or just around on the rental bikes (great system);<\/li>\n<li>how stylishly dressed the Parisians are, even the kids;<\/li>\n<li>how in some places you don&#8217;t feel that safe walking around.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now before I get a load of grief this isn&#8217;t about which is the better city, obviously there are things on that list I miss when in Dubai, and there are things that I don&#8217;t. That will be true no matter where I choose to live, I have yet to find nirvana.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nUltimately for me it is about new experiences that enrich my life and leave me feeling like I learnt something. And that&#8217;s enough for me.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nHave a good day.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I really enjoyed my 8 day vacation in Paris, but of course its also nice to be home. Back in the sandpit and back with the kitties, who I missed tons. It is also cooling down now a teeny-tiny smidge which is fabulous news I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ll agree. The things that make Paris so different [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,24,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holidays","category-impressions","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catinthedunes.com\/Dubai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}