Paris - Wkd. 16 Sept.

I decided to take a free weekend to spend time in Paris as I wanted to come for the Paris vs. Lyon soccer game; this was on my list of notable games/teams to see while living in Europe before moving.  I have not done much traveling since returning from the US mid-August; however, Geneva in the summer has been quite nice with the lake and sunny weather.  I swam for my first time in the water after living in the area for two years and this was long overdue!

I flew to Paris in Friday night and immediately had a bit of a surprise when sitting on the runway in Geneva and went to check my hotel reservation and realized I had the incorrect dates on my hotel reservation......Luckily, Paris is huge and I would cancel and re-book another location still in central Paris and was not homeless for the evening.

For Saturday in Paris, I took a bike tour of Versailles.  This was an area that had not seen in the past in my previous visits to Paris (2012, 2016, and now).  The Versailles gardens were massive and it was quite interesting to see one set of traditional decor in straight lines and highly structured and then the Queen's garden was meant to feel like an escape to a peasant village; learning the history was fun.

The day was mostly rainy and cold so any chance that we had to go indoors for the palace or other buildings in the garden was great. Following the group, I went for a run and grabbed dinner to then prepare for the following days' 17 mile long run and the PSG game.

The long run in Paris was nice as I was able to run by Parc des Princes (PSG stadium) and Roland Garros (French Open); it's always fun running in large cities as you can often find many landmarks that are are both very known and/or off the beaten bath that you would not otherwise find:

Following the run, I went to the Louvre for the first time and then to the soccer game before taking a train back to the Geneva to start work for the week: