Paris! A run for the books!

As my loyal readers (all 2 or 3 of them) know, we are in Paris this weekend. I appreciate all of you who were concerned about the riot situation. Unfortunately, the inept French government gave in to the lawless youths and the violence subsided. I was really hoping to get a picture of Maria in front of a burning car too – bummer. So fellas, this is the best I could do:

Uh…Steve… about the run...

Oh yeah, sorry for the opening tangent. The weather for this mornings run was perfect. It had to be right around 50 F at 8 am. I started out here at the Hilton and headed down a couple of side streets. After about ¼ mile or so I came out on the Champs Elysees and headed southeast, away from the Arc De Triomphe. The pace of this run was slow; around 9 min miles for a couple of reasons: (1) my legs were beat after all the walking we did yesterday, including walking down about half of the Eiffel Tower at my daughter’s request. (2) This run was just so cool that I couldn’t help going slow and lookin’ at stuff. You have to be careful not to go TOO slow in Paris though, or this could happen:

The goal of this run was to run under the Eiffel Tower, so as soon as I started to see it, I headed in that direction. I took a right turn off the Champs Elysees and crossed the Seine at Pont Alexandre III. Just before the bridge I passed 2 big honkin’ buildings. Believe or not, they are actually not called “big honkin’ buildings”. They were museums called Palais de la Decouverte (Grand Palais and Petit Palais). After getting to the front of Hotel de Invalides (a really old building with a bright gold roof built by Louis the whatever for some injured soldiers), I turned down Rue de Grennelle which came out on Champ De Mars right in front of the Eiffel Tower. Champ De Mars looks like this:

I then proceeded to run under the Eiffel Tower (Ok, is this not the coolest run ever, or what?) and headed for home. I crossed the Seine right in front of the tower and ran along the riverfront for a while before returning to the Champs Elysees. The Sun was rising and the views of the tower were great here. When I got back to the Champs Elysees, the traffic was beginning to pick up, so I figured I’d run to the Arc and then hang a right (thus avoid crossing the huge rotary) and head back to the hotel.

However, when I approached the Arc De Triomphe, I thought “What the heck!”... I sprinted across the Rotary and run under the Arc De Triomphe also.

That was the most enjoyable 5.5 miles I’ve ever ran, and I hope you guys enjoyed this little piece of it.