The Run-Around

Okay, so seriously? What was I thinking? A kir a day?? I'm already foreseeing getting tired of them before too long, even with the potential variation of peach or raspberry liqueur instead of crème de cassis. So I'm changing the rules. A year in France is, by its very nature, a year of kir; I don't have to be so darned literal about it. There will be kirs, I will photograph them, and those photographs will be featured here. But let's not go overboard. As long as I have this picture, though, I will tell you that this was the first kir I made here, in our Paris apartment. The first of three, each on a different day. And this is only our fourth night here. You see what I mean about the over-zeal? A little out of hand.

In other news, I went on my first Parisian run yesterday. On the right is a picture of me before takeoff. I thought it was kind of a lousy picture, and when I clicked to enlarge it, it turned out to be, in fact, a seriously lousy picture--totally out of focus. Ah well, it's what I got. I planned out my route looking at maps online, because I wanted to make my way down to and run along the Seine (that's the river here in Paris...I'm sure all of you know that, but if it turned out that I was name-dropping and someone didn't know what I was talking about, I'd feel bad). I live where the little "A" pin is, just to give you a sense of things. So I ran down Boulevard de Sébastopol, which was quite crowded, and then hung a right when I got down to the river. So far, so good-ish, except for the people-dodging. The Eiffel Tower was now ahead to the left, and the sky was pinkening slightly, and it was this beautiful moment of oh-my-goodness-I'm-really-here. But I wanted to run down by the river (cue old Chris Farley SNL skit), rather than on the sidewalk above it, and so I went down a narrow sidewalk and, brilliantly, entered a tunnel that was full of moving cars. I was sort of hoping that it would be a short passageway that would let me out on the quai (but how? Where would the cars go?), but it went on and on, and as I was trotting along a quite-narrow sidewalk facing traffic, the cars sped by and honked at me. Good times. And good breathing. With no other-end in sight, I waited for the traffic to thin out for a moment and turned back around. I soon found a way down along the riverbank that was made for foot traffic, and then ran along the cobblestones (which receive about a C for ease and comfort as running surfaces go) for the remainder of the "out" part of my out-and-back. Went through another little tunnel under a bridge where a small homeless community seems to have set up camp, passed some teens enjoying snacks and drinks, couples sitting on benches looking at the water, people fishing...a lovely Parisian evening scene. I'm going to have to keep working on better routes, but I do like it here.