Monday, February 17th: Rose and I ran to the Eiffel Tower together! We ran 3/4 mile with Jeff from our apartment to the river, then he sped up and disappeared into the distance while Rose and I continued along the river together. I told Rose that the Eiffel Tower was 3.3 miles from our apartment, and she decided to throw caution to the wind and run all the way there, even though she knew it would be a stretch to run there and back again--over six miles total. I am always up for a boundary-pushing distance run, and Rose has run 6 miles once or twice before in her life, so we went for it!
It was a cold 30 degree morning, but running along the Seine in the early morning is so fun because that's The Place to run. Sure, there are a few other good places to run in Paris, but the Seine is the most central and easy to run along since it has a nice pedestrian only road down low along the riverbank, away from sounds of traffic. Rose and I enjoyed the crisp peaceful downtown run. We ran through the half mile Tuileries tunnel, which goes underneath the Louvre. It was much warmer in the tunnel, so we started getting hot before coming out the other side and remembering immediately that it was actually a cold morning.
I loved going on this run with my daughter! It was magical watching Rose experience running through the early morning city to the much-anticipated Eiffel Tower for the first time. The tower popped into view over a mile before we reached it, motivating Rose to keep going. When we arrived at the tower, we stopped to take some pictures at the Olympic rings nearby and to soak in the sight of the sun rising behind the Eiffel Tower. Our sweat froze and we got cold fast! So we started jogging along the opposite side of the Seine, back towards our apartment. About a quarter mile later, Rose said she wasn't sure how much farther she could run. I started looking for a metro station, but realized that I didn't have my credit card with me. There was no way we were going to survive the cold if we had to walk 2.5 miles back to our apartment! What to do?
The thought came to me that I had my credit card saved in my phone in Google Wallet (Android's version of Apple Pay). I had seen other people paying at ticket machines by tapping their phone onto the card reader, so I figured it was worth a try. Worst case scenario we would freeze on the long walk home. We stopped running while I searched Google maps for the nearest metro station with a line that went near our apartment, or at least connected with a line that went near our apartment. Laaa! There was a station up ahead about 100 meters! We jogged over to it. Of course the ticket machines were outside the station at this one--the first time I have seen outdoor ticket machines. Brrrr, we were cold and I about froze my fingers off tapping buttons on the machine, selecting the proper tickets. The moment of truth came when it was time to pay the 5 euros. I tapped my phone on the card reader and... it worked!! We gratefully scooped up the tickets and dashed into the metro station.
We felt relieved and triumphant. I felt so savvy, snagging two different types of train to get us home as quickly as possible. One RER train ride and one metro ride later, we dashed the final 200 meters to our apartment. It was a fun adventure with my Rose!
1 comment:
Cutest mother & daughter ever!💕
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