Paris!

This past week we headed to France to see the sights and run the Paris Marathon with our friends Lindsey and Justin Waugh. The advantage of living on this side of the pond is being able to take the lightning fast Eurostar train that travels between London and central Paris in just over two hours! Chris and I arrived a few hours before the Waugh’s plane landed, so we settled in the cute (and affordable, with a full kitchen, only blocks from the Louvre!) apartment Chris had found on www.homeaway.co.uk. When they arrived there were lots of hugs and chatting and then we left to take our first wander around the city. We spent a bit of time at the race expo and bought some race paraphernalia to commemorate Chris's and my first marathon!

The Eiffel Tower lit at night.

From there we went to the Eiffel Tower to admire it in the daylight.  Actually, admire is a too strong a word: it’s more iconic than it is beautiful.  We really wanted to go up to the top but only one elevator was working and the resulting line was well over two hours long!  We knew there were stairs to the observation deck and when decided to at least go that far by foot.   When buying the walking tickets, however, we realized there was an elevator that ran from that middle section to the top (with no wait!) so we were excited that it was working out so well.  Well, to get to that first section to take photos was quite a few stairs but we did well.  We looked around for an elevator and found a little sign with a picture of an elevator by some stairs so started up those.  Welllll, maybe we should’ve looked more carefully because none of us expected the twenty or so more flights it took to get to the elevator!  Turns out there were over 700 stairs, which, combined with the day’s non-stop walking, made our legs feel like jelly that night.  So much for the rest and taper strategy!  Our timing was great because we made it to the top to watch the sun set and the city light up, and by the time we got back down the sky was dark and the tower was stunningly lit.  Dinner afterwards was hilariously terrible. 

A view of Paris from the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower.

Friday we awoke early to get to the Louvre, a gigantic museum in the very center of Paris that houses hundreds of thousands of items from around the world and throughout time.  Its most famous occupant is Leonardo de Vinci’s Mona Lisa although to be honest I just cannot truly appreciate why it is ‘better’ than many other works.  Maybe I should take an art appreciation class, or at least read a book on the subject.  Everyone has a different ‘museum pace’ and different interests so we decided to meet back in the lobby at a certain time.  For a sense of scale, the museum was so large that we were late getting back to the meeting point despite leaving our Egyptian mummies with half-an hour to spare!  The Louvre is a great example of how bigger is definitely not better. It’s not very user-friendly and overwhelming.  For example, does one really need to see a thousand bronze pots?  I guess I’d rather see a few and understand why they were important instead.  The National Museum in London and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam are fantastic in that regard.    (Am I a museum snob?!)   

Looking down at the pyramid in the Louvre's courtyard.

Inside the Louvre.

Chris in front the Mona Lisa.

After the Louvre we walked (again, with the walking!)  to the much cozier Sainte-Chapelle, a Gothic sanctuary built in the 1200’s to house the crown of thorns relic from Jesus’ crucifixion.  The crown is now housed down the street at the Notre Dame Cathedral but Sainte-Chapelle is still well visited for its absolutely stunning stained glass works.  There are over a thousand biblical scenes worked into the huge panel windows.   Afterwards, we walked around an outdoor market and ate some yummy sandwiches from a little shop nearby before walking to see the Notre Dame Cathedral. 

Dinner was amazing that night.  We took the advice of our Parisian landlord and went to the restaurant a couple doors down from our apartment.  Everything from the scallops to the onion soup to the veal to the pasta was perfectly cooked and seasoned.  (We ended up back at this restaurant for dinner after our marathon and were just as pleased the second time around.)

Saint Chapelle's amazing stained glass. 

Justin is our hunchback of Notre Dame.

Me and Chris in front of Notre Dame.

Hilarious!

Saturday we really did try to limit our walking and stair-climbing!  Even walking up and down the stairs to the Metro was laborious, which shows how tired our legs were by this point.  (I know, I’m already making marathon excuses and we haven’t even gotten to that part of the blog yet.)  There’s a reason Parisians are skinny!  We took the Metro to the Arc du Triumph and then took a bike tour of Paris with Bike About Tours (thanks to Trip Advisor for finding that awesome activity!)  We probably rode ten miles in three hours and got to see and learn about all sorts of little Parisian gems.  I think 6 or 7 of the 12 of us on the tour were in Paris for the marathon, so that was neat.  There was one woman on the tour that kept us all entertained… I’m glad to say she made it back safely despite her many, many attempts to get run over.  She was absolutely oblivious, too, and tourists were taking pictures OF HER everywhere we went.  So funny.   Chris and I have made a tradition of eating mushroom fettuccini alfredo before every big race or ride this season, so we cooked that up for dinner for the four of us and tucked in early to get ready for the race.

The four of us at the Arc du Triumph.

The four of us across the river from the Eiffel Tower.

Ms. Red and Chris on our bike tour!

Justin as our safety officer!

Sunday was MARATHON DAY!  I was nervous about what to wear, whether to wear a hat, if I should take gloves, what ‘bin’ to start in (there are pacers in each bin so if you want to run a 4:00 marathon you try to stick with the pacer that has that flag), if my stomach would give me trouble, if it was going to rain, etc.  Chris and I ran a 20-mile race about six weeks ago and that was the longest either of us had managed to go before this race.  We’ve also had company and I’ve taken a trip back to the States since then so really felt unprepared for this race!  All those doubts crept up and made me nervous before the start.  At race check-in we received big plastic bags to wear before the race to retain body heat.  These were crucial!  I’m doing a whole separate blog for the race itself, so will just say that we all finished, Chris faster than the other three of us, and even though I promised myself to never do another marathon (other than the obligatory one at the end of Ironman) I feel that I could (with proper training and some rehab on my IT band) finish another one in under 3:50.  And that’s how it starts. 

After the race we lounged around, took hot showers, napped, drank some beer, and then strolled two doors down to our favorite restaurant on the corner. Two hours later, after another fantastic meal, we vetoed our previous idea to take the Metro to another part of the city for a drink and instead (barely) made it the two doors (and like thirty steps up – arg!) to our apartment. 

Monday we were supposed to catch a train back to London but (totally my fault) mixed up times and didn’t make it to the train station in time.  Technology is wonderful, though, and within an hour we had rebooked the train for the following day, found/booked/checked into a hotel a couple blocks away, and were ready for a bonus day in Paris.  We took the morning to see the infamous Moulin Rouge and walk up the hill to the Montparnasse neighborhood.  At the top of the hill was a beautiful church.  Historically, Montparnese was the neighborhood of starving artists and eclectic tastes.  Today it is much more of a tourist congregation zone but the central square is still full of artists selling paintings of skylines or offering to sketch your face.   

Moulin Rouge

From there we went to Père Lachaise, a cemetery that our bike tour guide had recommended we take a wander around.  We had no idea what to expect but trusted her judgment, so took the Metro across to the eastern part of Paris.  We were instantly impressed with the place!   The pictures don’t do it justice but do better than I could in describing it.  Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison are buried there, along with close to a million other people.  It felt like a city of mausoleums, and the richer the family, the larger and more ornate the grave site and monuments were.  From the gravesite we went to the ‘left bank’ and walked by the Pantheon and then to a major shopping street whose name I don’t recall.  The next day we did make it to the train station on time, whew, and were back at home by noon on Tuesday!

Pere Lachaise cemetary.

Eurostar train back to London, try #2!