21 Janvier: dodging strollers for a 1,062 foot tall ornament

So, to counter-act the negative cultural difference I saw yesterday, I feel it is necessary to also express the positive differences I recognize as well. For example, while walking back from the supermarche the other day, a little boy, around 3 or 4 years old, whizzed by us on his scooter, flying ahead of his father. The funny part was that as he flew past, he turned towards us, and yelled "Pardon!" with his adorable French accent. Now, I work in a daycare and I never once encountered any child that ever said anything comparable to pardon or excuse me, especially in passing. Now, I've heard the please and thank you when they realized they would get what they wanted in return for their politeness, but this pardon I heard the other day was unlike what I would expect from 3 or 4 year old. I enjoyed it quite a bit-very cute.

But anyways, today, we went on a fabulous run on our usual path. However, since it was daytime and we were feeling adventurous, we made our way into the city. We've been wanting to run all the way to the Eiffel Tower but we assumed we would have to work ourselves up to it since we figured it's about 5 or 6 miles. But we were pleasantly surprised that we were only able to do it after running for about a week and a half. And the most glorious part? The Eiffel Tower definitely lit up just as we reached it. It is a magnificent sight. Thousands of bulbs strung all throughout the tower flashing like strobe lights, making it look like a huge twinkling ornament. We had seen the tower lit up from a distance but it really is breath-taking up close.