TRAVEL: New Year in Paris

MARK McLAUGHLIN
3 January 2009
In PARIS

Bonne Année...or rather Happy New Year big yin, for it seems the auld boast is true that no one celebrates New Year like the Scottish.
Saw in the bells on the Champs Elysees and it was a bit, well, merd! No countdown, two fireworks and not much excitement at all really, which left me hankering for the madness of George Square or Princes Street.
However, that hankering lasted only about as long as the non-existent countdown, for other than the Parisians' poor New Year celebrations (bring back Quasimodo - he knew how to party at "the bells") my first visit to Paris was tres bien.
The food was cheap (c.13EURO for a steak), but the drink was extortionate (27EURO for two vodkas and bottle of water at the Rex Club on New Year).
My neighbourhood of choice for the short visit was Rue Mouffetard, the Parisian equivalent of Edinburgh's Rose Street with cobbled streets, wonky buildings and wall-to-wall bars and restaurants.
The hostel, named Young and Happy, was anything but and insisted on kicking all of its guests out for five hours between 11am and 4pm to clean the rooms. Still, it was a place to rest our head and we spent most of our time in the pub.