Today we arrived in Paris, and I was the lucky runner that got to carry the baton into the city. I’m an unashamed Francophile, having spent a bunch of time working and traveling and eating and drinking throughout France, but haven’t been in Paris since the finish of the 2005 Tour de France. I’ve missed it!

Just before starting my leg, we stopped to cheer Lansing on and grab a coffee at a local bar in the outskirts of Paris. As we walked into the bar at 6:45am, we noticed that it was quite bustling and about half the people were drinking coffee, while the other half were drinking beers. I guess it was Saturday morning for some, but still late Friday evening for the rest! We stuck to the coffee.

As I made my way toward La Defense, I had music from my favorite French movie, “Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie Poulin” playing in my iPod. I soaked up every minute of the run and ran through the BPR message (that we read at every exchange) in my head in French. I was a bit nervous about jumping onto the microphone in French, not having practiced much in the past couple of years, but luckily the adrenaline and surroundings were enough to help the words flow out.

After a couple of interviews and photos, Brynn and I met up with her cousin Mike (great to see you!) for a wonderful breakfast of croissants, bread, coffee, oeuf a la coque, and some wonderful rhubarb preserves. I couldn’t have imagined a breakfast tasting any better, after so many long nights of running and weird meals in the van.

But, as it goes with the BPR, before long it was time to move on and we had to say “a la prochaine” (until next time) to Paris!