More Paris! - Honeymoon/Semana Santa Pt. II

After we found our (new) hotel in Paris and had a good nights sleep, we woke up (relatively) early and killed a few hours walking along the Seine before our train trip to Reims.

We took the Metro to the Ile de Cite, grabbed a cafe au lait and a croissant, and went to check out Notre Dame.

We have been to Notre Dame twice before, but this was the first time the line to get in wasn't insanely long so we finally got to go inside.  And it's huge.  And beautiful.  

There was a small service going on so we wandered around the periphery of the church.  Interestingly (to me) the stain glass windows actually open to allow air to circulate.

Next, we decided to wander towards the Eiffel Tower.  Except we went the wrong way (and no, you couldn't just see it and walk towards it, I think).  But we did find the soon to be closed lock bridge which Kelly wanted to put a lock on.  However, we didn't have a lock so we started walking back in the right direction until we came across a guy selling locks.  So we bought a lock and then walked back to the bridge where we got our lock on:)

We walked down to the closed road that runs next to the river, and it turns out they have lots of awesome games painted there.  Like the long jump here.

And, because its Paris, there are tons of places to take really good pictures.  Across the river in this picture, under the white tents, is a small flea market that we went and visited.  I'm pretty sure any Francophile could furnish their entire house there.

We also ran across this barge/park.  Its 3 old barges that have been turned into a park with plants, trees, and even a greenhouse.

And also these sweet nets that looked like a great place to take a nap except that they were not comfortable at all.

Finally, we made it to Paris's big radio tower.  After walking around (we have never gone up, going in things isn't really our M.O. for traveling if you haven't noticed) we decided to find some food and take in the nice weather and the great view.

We stopped at a stand to get Frites and Wine.  However, they would only sell you frites (which they were dumping straight out of the Carrefour bag into the fryer, how authentic)if you got 2 hot dogs with them.  Picture french fries and 2 hot dogs... got it?...  Wrong.  We got a small bowl filled with fries with 2 hotdogs (no buns) layed across the top.  Fortunately, Kelly proceeded to immediately drop the hotdogs on the ground, so we ended up with just frites and wine after all, which we sat and ate right in front of the Eiffel Tower (Most enjoyable moment of this, watching a crow try and grab these hotdogs.  After a few tries he just got the whole thing in his mouth (sideways) and flew off).

SuperPrestige CX Race Diegem, Belgium

December 29 we took the morning train from Cologne to Brussels.  After tracking down our hotels and getting a feel for the city we took the bus out to Diegem, about 9 km away for the Diegem SuperPrestige CX Race.

We got there as a junior race was ending and about an hour before the mens race began.  After taking a peak in the techno-blaring VIP tent and getting scared senseless by a firework/bomb that got set off in a muddy field we got some frites with mayo and a couple beers and checked out the course.  The Diegem race is the only major CX race run under the lights so they had these big glowing orbs around the course for illumination.

We set up shop at the top of the wooded section where we could see the riders drop into the start of the woods and then see them come out into an uphill section with a tight 180 turn.  We picked our spot right on the barriers and stayed there the whole race.  It helps that people from Belgium (and Germany and Holland) are all really tall so noone needed to take our spot since they could all see over our heads.

 Kelly after carrying this tray 1/2 km around a muddy course right before the race!!

Tom Meeusen followed by Sven Nys

 Kelly & Mike before the race.

Jonathan Page was in the race but had to pull out due to injuries from a previous crash so we did what pretty much everyone else was doing and cheered for Sven or Neils (Sven obviously) and the guy who was in last place, who must have been a local and had a sweet mustache, who got a huge round of applause every time he went by for the entire race.

In the end, Sven Nys won the race (his last on a Colnago before he switched to Trek) with a pretty large gap.  Walking back to the train station, we passed the now insane techno-tent party and at least 100 charter busses filled with nothing but people, galoshes, and Jupiter beer (and more techno).

Just Awesome...

Here's a link to the Cycling News race report.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/superprestige-diegem-2013/elite-men/results