Faire du Jogging

It was a pleasant surprise upon my arrival when I saw dozens of students and young adults running up and down the street of Boulevard Brune--hopefully I wouldn't stand out so much as an American when running here?

However, there was one small problem: Boulevard Brune is not the ideal place to go running.  It is a very busy street with a tram that runs right down the middle of it.  You cannot run more than a half a mile in any direction without coming across a metro stop which forces you to either jog in place or walk through the crowd of pedestrians, not to mention all of the red lights. 

Boulevard Brune

But just last week, I found a solution to this problem and it is glorious!!  About one mile down Boulevard Brune, there is a beautiful and rather large park that is full of roller bladers, bikers, and runners all making their way through the paths and over the bridges.  There's lots to watch as you run: toy sailboats on the lake, 5-person families all wearing roller blades, a variety of dogs allowed to run loose through the park, and of course fellow runners.  I could not be more happy about finding this lovely little place to run each day.  For those of you planning to visit me this Spring, be sure you pack your running shoes!!

Early March is the Paris half marathon which I am pretty determined to run.  I have done the Charlottesville half twice and the Virginia Beach half once and enjoyed them immensely.  I ran all three of them with my roommate from UVA Alexis who will actually be visiting at that time--is it fate? 

Alexis and Me finishing the Charlottesville Half Marathon

Although it has been hard to get any serious long distance runs in thus far, I should be able to find some routes in my neighborhood as the race approaches.  Here are some picture from Paris half marathons past that illustrate exactly why I want to run this race so badly, the route is incredible!! 

Bonne journée mes amis! Je pense que je vais faire du jogging maintenant ...

Bisous Bisous,

Mary