Entre Les Murs

Coureur du Bois

I can see that the Bois de Boulogne is going to be a lovely place to run come spring. It's all mud, sticks and dead leaves now, but even so it's a lively and well-used place, with ponds, playing fields, and plenty of trees and bushy parkland with meandering paths. There are restaurants, two hippodromes, sports clubs, Rolland Garros (the tennis club where the French Open is playes) and more. Even at this time of the year there are people riding horses, running, strolling and playing games.

It's a good thing the Garmin seems to be having better luck with its satellites, because the Bois is big enough that it's going to take me a while before I know my way around. On Friday I managed to get a little lost, and was grateful for the little arrow that points back to the start. I didn't quite believe it at first since it was pointing directly behind me when I thought I was heading straight home; if it hadn't been for the top of the Eiffel tower poking through the trees (over my right shoulder instead of a little to the left), I might have come out the other side.

This evening there is a football match between Paris St. Germain and Marseille at the Parc des Princes (a couple of blocks away). The paper states that there are 1200 police mobilized to see that things stay calm. So far it's more than calm - they've towed all the cars from our street, there is a gendarme for every two pedestrians and from our door I can see a couple of dozen police vehicles. As it happens, the Marseille team got angry about the tickets they'd been allocated so sent their second team and told their fans to stay home, thus there may not be much happening at all.

posted 5.3.06