Training Log Archive: Nadim

Paris, France. Today was a day of improvisation. We’d scheduled a trip to Versailles but in the morning I realized it was closed on Mondays. We hoofed it over to the metro and got to Pyramides where we walked to the Louvre. Despite it being close to 9am, there we found that they would not accept any more visitors. It was already too busy. We hiked across the Jardin des Tuileries to Musée de l'Orangerie where we saw the great Claude Monet impressionist Water Lillie’s murals and other works from artists including Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and more. We crossed the Seine looking to get into the Musée d'Orsay but it was closed on Mondays too. We hiked to Les Invalides and did get in there. The French Resistance exhibition would have been more interesting if we understood French but we did get into the dome to see the opulent resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte.

We took a bus to the Eiffel Tower but only went to the river for a relaxing boat ride. We walked across the Seine again from there to the Gardens of Trocadéro. It was in the 90s F so people were splashing in the fountains.

We took a bus to Arc de Triomphe. Since we had passes we went right to the front of the line and climbed the stairs to the top for the best views of the city so far! After getting down and refueling on the Champs-Elysées (in a McDonalds) we hiked to Cathedrale Saint Alexandre Nevsky to tie in Max’s heritage. We hiked on to Parc Monceau and to a metro station that got us close to to the Galeries Lafayette/Printemps Haussmann Stores. After eating at a Thai/Japanese/Jewish restaurant we headed to our apartment but had to hike to Grands Boulevards metro since 3 of our 5 day fare cards wouldn’t work. Hopefully they were fixed for good by the helpful station attendant. We go into a hotter day tomorrow.

https://flic.kr/p/2gEEYxP