Week one of 'le retour'

This week I have covered 23 km, which takes me to Herblay, one of the north-western suburbs of Paris.  It's twinned with Yeovil, but from what I've seen so far - streets of newish-build houses, a lot of construction - there is little else to recommend it.  I could be wrong, I may have simply taken a very un-scenic route, but I won't be lingering here for long.  Not sure that I'll cover 23k again this week as last week's total was boosted by a 10k charity walk and I shan't be doing that again in a hurry - it was tougher than I expected!

Never say never, though: I plan to walk to and from work at least 3 days this week, and do my Park Run on Saturday, plus wandering around Lymington Market, always good for a couple of extra k.

It's sad to say goodbye to Paris after spending a (virtual) Summer there, but the lure of my cosy home beckons as Autumn puts a nip in the air.  I can always run back next year and, in fact, I do have a vague plan about doing a Parisian Park Run to celebrate my 60th birthday in 2020!

A tout à l'heure!

La rentrée

For students of all ages in France, September means 'la rentrée' - back to school.  For me, it means I should start thinking of walking back to Southampton, after 4 months in Paris.  So today, 1 September, I will don my trainers again and begin the trek home.  I'm not sure it's going to be as easy getting home as it was getting here (not that it was terribly easy in the first place!) To be honest, I'm not sure how I managed to achieve it - it seems a lot more daunting now than when I started out, but that could be because I've had a birthday: I am now in my 60th year, having reached 59 a month ago.  August was NOT a great month - nothing to do with clocking up another birthday - but those are anecdotes for another time.  For now, I will concentrate on putting my best foot forward and heading north.

Adieu, Paris!

HOME!

I made it, with 11 km to spare!

I wasn't sure I would make it as I've been falling behind in my running recently, but the idea of failure was just too much for me so I made a concerted effort to run and walk more since my last post, and I'm really pleased that I've covered more than the 222.2 miles from door to door since 1 January!  

It was Easter 1987 that I arrived in Paris with a suitcase and £400 in travellers' cheques.  I stayed for a few weeks with a friend, Pauline Wood, who I had met at college, and who was working for UNESCO, in her tiny 2-room apartment at 6 rue du Foin, just off the Places des Vosges.

The heavy double wooden doors opened onto a lovely courtyard.  Pauline's flat was at the very top of the far wing of the building, and had once been part of the servants' quarters. 

I think that this apartment may well be Pauline's - very different from when I stayed there in 1987!  It had tons of character, unlike my purpose-built studio that was simply one long room with a kitchen at one end, and a bathroom off the small entrance hall but, at 1,350F a month (approximately £135) I was more than happy with it.  These days you could expect to pay between £850 - £1,100 for a studio in the 11th arrondissement.

I shall stay in Paris for a while now, and contemplate the route I will take home.  It's taken me less than 4 months to 'run' here, so I can stay until at least the end of August before I head back to the UK.  I'm looking forward to revisiting some of my old haunts - do pop back from time to time to see what I'm up to!

46 km to go!

I've only covered 10.5 km this week, all of that on Saturday - morning Park Run, and afternoon walking - but it has brought me to this lovely location:

Guiry-en-Vexin

I had planned to run further last week, but the weather was not kind and I have become a bit of a fairweather runner.  Added to that, I have my new kitty, Minette, to try and find in the evenings - she is a timid puss and keeps finding new places to hide - so my attention has been diverted from the last few km to reach my goal.

This week, however, I plan to cover a minimum of 23 km, as I have 2 weeks and 46 km to go before I reach my old front door, 222.6 miles/358.3 km from my current one.  While I am still stuck at my desk, though, I shall enjoy my surroundings.  How lovely it would be to live there - but I wouldn't want to have to clean it!

Poisson d'avril?

This is no April Fool!  Or, as the French would say 'poisson d'avril'.  The custom is to pin a picture of a fish (a normal, run-of-the-mill goldfish, from memory) on the back of the person you want to prank, and see how long it takes them to realize.   All of this was very confusing to the 12-year-old me, on my first exchange to Bourges, Easter 1973.  I was all ready with my 'pinch and a punch for the first of the month' so was unprepared for gentle pats on the back followed by sniggers.  I'm not sure how long I wandered around with a goldfish on my back, but I do know that pinching and punching people - however gently - did not go down well!

Today is 1 April but this post is no joke: with only 3 weeks to go before Easter, I am a mere 56 km away from Paris!  I haven't walked/run very far since my last post, partly because I have been getting my home ready for a new arrival.  I had fallen in love with a picture of a little long-haired black cat called Coco, but by the time I had made up my mind I would like to adopt her, she had already been rehomed.   Having set my heart on her, I decided to look for another black long-haired cat, and came across 'Hetty'.  She was taken to Cats Protection as a stray a little over 6 weeks ago and needed a quiet home with no other pets, no children, and with someone who could be very patient because she was so very shy.  I went to meet her but didn't actually see her, as she was hiding in her black fleece igloo - I only knew she was in there when she opened her big green eyes!  She allowed me to reach in and stroke her and I decided there and then to offer her a home.  The rest of the week was spent tidying up and eliminating all the nooks and crannies a scaredy-cat could hide in, and I went to collect her on Saturday.   I've renamed her Minette (French for Kitty) and if it weren't for my cat-cam, I wouldn't know she was there as she doesn't come out from under the bed while I'm around!

All that to say that I haven't recorded anything other than 2 park runs since my last post but they have brought me to Saint Gervais in the Ile-de-France, a pretty little place, from what Google shows me:

It's a glorious day in the photo, and it's a beautiful day here in England, too.  Let's hope the weather stays fine for the final 56k to Paris.  I'll make sure I'm there for Easter!

On the road again ...

I left the beach behind some time ago, and have just passed Rouen!

I shall be following the D6014 for a while - not strictly 'as the crow flies' but more scenic and less hard on the feet than cross-country!  And, I hope, with a few more places to stop for a virtual glass of wine on the way!

I only have 72km to go before I can ring on my old front door and see if the ghost of my former self is still home.  I know I would recognize myself if I opened the door - I found a photograph of myself, sitting in my flat in Paris, when I was doing a bit of tidying up at the weekend.  Tidying up is not something I often do, and it was slow progress as I stopped to look at all the things I uncovered.  

So on towards Paris I go, singing the French equivalent of '10 green bottles': 

Cinq kilomètres à pied, ça use, ça use .... Cinq kilomètres à pied, ça use les souliers!

Si proche, pourtant si loin

So close, and yet so far away

I managed 23k this week - maddeningly, still 6k from shore!  Even if I had completed the Park Run on Saturday morning I would still have been short.  But this isn't a race, I'm not in competition with anyone, so I shall curb my enthusiasm and enjoy the journey.

Saturday's Park Run was the inaugural event to open a new course.  The organizers wanted to keep it low-key but almost 300 runners slipped and slithered around the extremely muddy and frankly downright dangerous course: having nearly lost my footing three times, I decided to retire gracefully rather than push my luck and risk a fall/broken bones/sprains or other injury.  I completed 3.4k of the 5k course, and my time was slower than normal, but experienced runners were also quite a bit slower.  It didn't help that I had regular road trainers, rather than trail shoes, although to be fair, they might have helped me stay upright, but not much is likely to make me go any faster!

So this time next week I shall be on the beach at St Valéry, drying off, and possibly enjoying an ice-cream, before heading overland to Paris!  I'd love to get there by Easter ... we'll see.