CNN may be abandoning its BREAKING NEWS heritage, but this blog isn't. On Sunday I didn't have any plans and Marian was off doing some stuff I wasn't interested in, so I went out and puttered around semi-aimlessly.
But after only five minutes, I reached Madeleine and discovered that thousands of runners had invaded my neighborhood for the Paris 10K. Naturally I dropped everything and took pictures. Lots of them. Here's a runner rounding the corner at the north end of L'eglise de la Madeleine. At this point he's got one kilometer to go:
Now they've made the loop around the church and are headed for the finish line at Place de la Concorde:
Almost there!
Bravo! They've crossed the finish line. Bananas for everyone!
And medals too. Starters got handsome blue tee-shirts while finishers all got medals sponsored by Adidas:
Check out all these happy medal winners:
And there was more good news: Parisians were all so busy running that they weren't jamming up the Orangerie, even though it was the first Sunday in June and entrance was free. That meant Marian was able to stroll around in peace while I continued my puttering around the rest of the city.
The Paris 10k looks pretty interesting, but the Paris Gay Pride Parade is even better.
Just puttering around Paris?!? I can't think of a more enjoyable and exciting and interesting way to spend some time than puttering around Paris.
You Veery Lucky dog!
Best Wishes, Traveller
These pictures of the starters and participants all being very happy at receiving a participation medal might be enough to make me re-think my reaction to say Good Grief when I hear that kids in a Soccer League, or other sports league end up all getting participation trophies after a big game.
Looking at adults of all ages being so happy to have completed the 10k Run does help to brighten up ones day.