My French Run: October 2010

oct 17 - major milestone

wait, where did the picturesque go??? this is seriously urban. i'm not sure what La Defense is, I really have to get a travel guidebook for some of this rather than relying just on google earth and wikipedia. La Defense appears to be the business district of Paris judging by all the towers. Great architecture, there's some really interesting towers here.

I found this shot online, it's a view of La Defense from the second level of the Eiffel Tower. That's how close I am now!!!

so today I began just south of La Defense, ran around this, back across the Seine and then onto a major highway. well that highway turned out to be the Champs-Elysees!!! And my 6.5 km today finished here!!! I'M IN PARIS!!!

It's taken a lot longer than planned as I find it hard to squeeze runs into life most days. But I've now run 434 km and I've made it to Paris (virtually at least!). Oh boy!!!

distance today: 6.5 km
distance to date: 431 km

oct 13

back across the river Seine again, this is a daily event. Just up from the bridge is this Ecluse de Chatou et Chute d'eau. I'm assuming that means dam although I can't find my dictionary right now. Across the river there's a major highway heading to Paris (oooohhhh!!!! I'm almost there!) so I'm trying to stay on smaller roads as long as I can. It definitely feels like I'm approaching a city. The sprawl has begun.

distance today: 6.5 km

distance to date: 424.5 km

oct 9

people. lived. here.

this was someone's home. their cozy little pied-de-terre. look at the size of this place!!! WOW!!! when i actually get to france this is absolutely on my must see list. i do hope the interior is restored and full of lovely gilt mirrors and dining tables that seat 100. i just can't imagine getting up, putting on ratty slippers and schlepping down to the kitchen for morning tea. i also can't imagine waking up and ringing a bell to have morning tea delivered to me in bed.

Saint-Germain-en-Laye was founded in 1020 when King Robert the Pious (ruled 996-1031) founded a convent on the site of the present Church of Saint-Germain. Prior to the French Revolution in 1789, it had been a royal town and the Château de Saint-Germain the residence of numerous French monarchs. The old château was constructed in 1348 by King Charles V on the foundations of an old castle (château-fort) dating from 1238 in the time of Saint Louis. Louis XIV was born here.

once i'd oogled the chateau i continued and ran across the river Seine again to a big roundabout. I'm on a rather boring straight stretch, the D186 or better sounding Boulevard Carnot.

distance today: 5 km

distance to date: 418 km

oct 7

i had thought that i'd follow the river seine in all it's curves and swerves into paris however i jumped ahead on the map and realized that i'd miss out on St-Germain-en-Laye. I'm officially in a suburb of Paris!!! I'd hoped to get to Paris by Oct 5 (my birthday) however life just keeps getting in the way and i'm not getting in as many runs as I'd like. How do people manage to run 5 days a week? Since I'm currently running outside I've missed a few due to rain. I am a complete wimp who refuses to run in cold rain. And this is Canada, the rain is cold. So I missed my self-imposed deadline, whatever. St-Germain looks lovely!

distance today: 5 km

distance to date: 413 km

oct 1

one of the details that i'm really liking is the texture of everything i'm seeing. there's a patina of age that we just don't have in north america. it lends an air of history, of depth. i finished the day in Poissy.

distance today: 6.5 km

distance to date: 408 km

sept 26

today was a longer run than usual. it was one of the toronto marathons and i ran along for a few kms, just to see how it felt on the track. next year people, next year i will be in the event although i want to do just the half marathon. i'll get there. my 9.5 km felt really good. this is actually getting easier.

on the french side today's 9.5 took me through Triel-sur-Seine on the north side of the river. I crossed over to the south side of the river on a bridge on the D1 which is quite disappointing. It's a very modern ribbon of concrete not the lovely picturesque bridges that I've been seeing. It left me wondering about the clash of modern homogenous highways and urban sprawl and the typical french countryside. Will all this charm one day disappear? And then I came into Villennes-sur-Seine. Swoon.