We boarded a Eurostar train to Paris in the morning. I appreciated the ease of traveling between countries via train rather than plane. We arrived in Paris and met our tour guide, who directed us through the metros and to our hotel. I immediately missed the efficiency of London’s tube compared to Paris’s metro. In Paris, the train pass is a small raffle-ticket sized piece of paper and must be physically inserted into the gate for it to open. A few classmates had problems keeping track of it, but my problem was that the magnetic strip on the back stopped working multiple times. This was frustrating, but I had fun sneaking around the gates with my classmate’s tickets before John made me speak French to the attendant to get a new one. We took a quick breather at the hotel before heading out to see Notre Dame. Just the walk to Notre Dame was beautiful; I love the narrow streets lined with stores and restaurants whose owners stand outside to greet. Notre Dame was impressive, and I would have loved to stayed in that area to explore more, but I had skipped my morning run and needed to get some miles in before it became too dark. Running along rivers is my favorite, so the path along the Seine proved to be a scenic and cultural treat to me. In the US and in London, it is easy to tell which side of a path to run on. Paris was a free for all: people were biking and running and walking in both directions on every side of the paths. This made me a little frustrated, but I found a guy that was running a bit faster than my pace so I followed in his wake to the Eiffel Tower. He definitely noticed what I was doing and abruptly stopped as the path diverged. I ran back to the hotel, weaving across bridges and passed many famous sites that I would visit in the coming days such as the Arc de Triumph, the Louvre, the lock bridge, and St. Chappelle. We had group dinner at a nice place near the hotel. Since the dinner lasted close to three hours, I enjoyed passing the time laughing and getting to know my classmates over a delicious meal.
