Roland Garros 2008 - Day 3

Another holiday sitting in a venue instead of at home with my wife!  The challenge with many of the tennis events is that they fall on 3-day weekends quite often.  Roland Garros is over Memorial Day, Wimbledon over July 4th, and US Open over Labor Day.  So, instead of cooking out or hanging out with friends, I am in Paris and trying to settle into some sort of routine.  At least I got up early again and went running.  I could tell it had been a while since I'd worked out two days in a row as I got gassed very early.  I walked a couple of times during the early laps, but kept that to a minimum and still ran almost 48 minutes.  I consider it a good workout either way.

I still do not understand French cooking.  Would it kill them to cook something a little longer?  For God's sake, the country has been around twice as long as the U.S.A, surely they'd have grasped the concept of fire??  Anyway, loose (read:  runny) scrambled eggs is tough, but I of course manage to push through.  The run leaves me hungry and since breakfast is included with the room, I'm not about to go pay for something cooked longer. :-)  I have small pangs of guilt about coming straight from my run to the breakfast room (I am probably pretty RIPE and definitely drenched with sweat) but at the same time, the French are not exactly fresh as a daisy, so I figure they just ignore any odor I might emanate.  At least it is good coffee, though I haven't quite worked out the logistics to bring my Splenda down and have actually used real sugar since I can't find anything other than saccharine in the restaurant (I can't stand the taste of it, honestly.)  I had a banana as well, and they would kill Colleen.  There were almost more bruised spots than edible looking banana.  I wonder if it is because importing from South America to Europe keeps most if not all of those kinds of fruits from ever truly being fresh?  I'll never know, mostly because Wikipedia doesn't seem to know. :-)

The walk to the metro was predominately uneventful.  I walked with most of the guys.  Since it was Josh's last day working, I let him decide which side of the split shift he wanted to work.  He wanted to work the evening.  I didn't pay very close attention to how we walked in, and that will prove significant later.

Paris has done a decent job cleaning itself up.  Or, maybe it is because we're in a more tourist driven part of town.  Either way, there were no evident signs of litter, dog poo, or graffiti down around the hotel.  Metro stops are still tough, but those are centuries old, so I give them a free pass.  Besides, I learned with my cats, you never really can get rid of urine smell. :-( [As an aside, every underground train system I have ridden on has at least one stop with a urine smell.  What is it about humans and being underground that gives them the belief they can avoid a restroom?  Hopefully it isn't as prevalent on elevated lines.]

Play ended early due to rain.  The group wanted Italian, and I was not about to have it three nights in a row.  That meant I was going to head back to the hotel on my own.  I wasn't worried, I can find a metro stop and was sure I knew where I was going.  YEAH RIGHT!  I got lost less than a mile from the venue!  It wasn't critically damaging.  I called (swallowing some pride) and had them explain where I'd lost my way.  I got to the right stop and managed to make the right connection and get out at the right final stop, mostly.  The station at Concorde has like six exits and I chose one.  It wasn't the right one, but the recovery was minimal to get back on track.

Bolstered by my freedom and successful navigation, I simply turned left off Rue de Rivoli and wandered into the heart of the neighborhood.  Unfortunately, I hadn't considered the time I left and arrived there.  It was well after 10 PM and that meant many restaurants would be closed or closing.  Ironically, the first three places I passed that were open were Italian!!!  I was not about to do that, prepared to wander as long as it took, potentially onto the Champs-Elysses if I had to where I knew Planet Hollywood and Hard Rock would be open well past 11.  Fortunately, I got to the street where the hotel is and there was a Chinese restaurant across the street still serving.  Well, he may have been trying to close, but seeing a table for one and that one being an American (Europeans are notorious for sitting at a table for hours after a meal not even ordering more beverages) he was willing to seat me.  It was quite tasty though not as spicy as I would have hoped.

Back to the room.  I called Colleen from the hotel phone.  Put it on my bill!  I miss her, and the 6 hours sucks.  There's no easy way to communicate with her with this time shift.  I am up at 2AM EDT, she's coming home from work at midnight CET.  She's doing well, physically, which is a good thing in my book.  I took a major risk coming here this close to her due date and if she goes into labor and I have to rush home missing the birth, I'll never forgive myself.  I should mention that for the first night since my arrival, there is air conditioning in the room.  That allowed me to drift off to sleep in a comfortable room.

Cheers!