Stade Francais romped to a four-try blitz in a convincing opening 31-7 victory over Edinburgh to top Heineken Cup Pool Four.

First-half tries from Julien Arias, Sergio Parisse, Pascal Pape and Lionel Beauxis ensured the bonus point was secured before the half-hour mark in Paris.

Edinburgh hit back in the second period and gained a late consolation score through Ben Cairns but the crushing loss was Edinburgh's 17th in their last 18 away outings in the Heineken Cup and consigned last season's victory at Castres to a distant memory.

Stade, who face the added pressure of being the host city for the 15th final next May, looked at ease as they flew out of the traps, but luck was on their side for the first try in the seventh minute.

Centre John Houston was turned over and, fortunately, right wing Arias picked up the scraps to launch a devastating counter-attack from inside his own half to beat Edinburgh fly-half Phil Godman on the outside and touch down with consummate ease.

Stade were firmly into their stride two minutes later when they claimed their second score to stun the visitors. Lock Tom Palmer won the line-out before fly-half Beauxis and Arias kept the move flowing to feed Italian number eight Sergio Parisse, who beat off the last-ditch tackle of Chris Paterson to crash over in the right corner.

Pape strolled through the challenge of Allan Jacobsen to add a third converted try by Dupuy for a comfortable 21-0 lead.

The bonus point came in the 29th minute when Beauxis finished off another fine flowing move to seal the home side's dominance and power.

The away team were rewarded for a spirited second-half performance when Cairns combined with centre partner Nick de Luca to ensure Edinburgh were not whitewashed for only the fourth time in the Heineken Cup.