As an hommage to 'Friends' and as a place to check off my list of Paris sights, I met up with Aubrey and Hannah at this awesome park- as my host dad accurately described as "very underrated". This park was so cool! A suspension bridge, a mind boggling and optical allusional park with crazy levels of up and down. I wouldn't describe it as "hilly" because that implies a large space of rolling hills and I wouldn't use "mountainous" because that gives an image of ruggedness which does not exist anywhere on Ile-de-France. It is simply an average sized parc of green lawns, paved walking paths, a pond, a free public bathroom (brownie points here), and a lookout rock with a gazebo on top. The thing is though, when you are sitting down on the grass that runs right into the pond, you look up at the suspension bridge and another green lawn that is so high up and yet close and tilted towards you, that your mind cannot really process how its possible.
It was a beautiful place to lay out our blankets and lay in the sun while munching on some apples and peanut butter. Quite a popular running location as well as a family stroll kind of place, I was soaking in every ounce of soleil and relaxation that I could. Plus I brought along a book and my travel journal artifacts to work on if I felt like it. Sunday is surely meant for relaxing on God's beautiful earth.
The hours and hours of sun left us totally exhausted (and me a little sun burnt, wooho!) that we had to literally drag ourselves around the city. Plus I had insanely painful blisters from my new shoes that I began walking like a flat-footed zombie. Rue Crimeux proved a little disappointing since it was full of a strange flash-mob dance group and a funny modeling photo shoot. Plus we were exhausted. But in an attempt to kill time, we decided to keep the parc-exploring going and we walked over to Jardin des Plantes. We were not in the plant-seeing or strolling mood. We found a bench and sat our butts on it for a bit while we debated what we wanted to eat and what we wanted to do. McDonalds french fries and an insane sardines-packed bus later, I was on my way home to finish up Conference.
The Paris Marathon happened to be that day so the crowds on all forms of transportation sucked. I do kind of regret not watching what I could of the marathon but with the appeal of sunshine, a grassy park, and thoughts of bombs+marathons floating through my mind, I decided against it. Nevertheless, it was a fabulous Sunday.
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