France

If you're a runner visiting Paris, consider running classic parts of the city. Paris is very "runner friendly". You'll likely see people on the wide sidewalks jaunting past you when you walk the city. Melissa and I took the opportunity and ran from our hotel, down the Champs-Elysees to the Louvre and (the other direction) to the Eiffel Tower. Route maps were captured with my Garmin Forerunner 305:

Champs-Elysees to Louvre	Champs-Elysees to Eiffel

It was a very memorable experience that I'm happy to have had. We might even start to make a tradition of visiting and running in world-renowned cities.

I'm really behind on posting information and photos about the trip Melissa and I took to Paris in November of 2006. That doesn't mean that I've abandoned the task.

To catch you up, the last post was all about our first full day in Paris (a Sunday). Since Monday was a workday, both of us took the day off from being tourists. Melissa had to meet her team at an ungodly hour Monday morning, and I slept in. The rest of my daytime was spent working remotely in the hotel room via the Internet. (Praise the gods of TCP/IP!). We got together in the evening for the first of many incredible dinners before collapsing from the jet lag exhaustion.

Tuesday was another workday for Melissa, but I had planned to spend the whole day at the Louvre rather than slave over a laptop. Little did I know that the Louvre closes every Tuesday. (Do they dust?) My plans veered, and I showed up to the glass pyramid early Wednesday morning for a full-day art marathon.

To complete the Louvre in a day, you need to visit the museum by yourself. You also need to study the guide map before deciding on a strategy. There are some collections that you'll observe rapidly. Other collections may require much more attention because of your personal level of interest (e.g., paintings or sculpture). Special objects in various collections, like the Mona Lisa, require extra time because of the limited number visitors allowed to approach the piece at any given moment. Whatever the strategy, you must pace yourself.

My Louvre photo collection contains a mere eighteen images. This is a direct result of my interest in seeing the whole Louvre rather than capturing parts of the Louvre on film. I can't emphasis enough that you should see the Louvre in person.