Paris Marathon 2014 and a romantic au revoir

This trip reveals so much about my husband.  We all know he is romantic- Paris for our 15th anniversary pretty much takes the cake.  He is also ambitious- packing in way more fun to a trip than any normal human could ever wish for.  He also loves to be efficient- killing three birds with one stone-celebrate anniversary, visit good friends abroad, run a marathon.  Sure, why not?

And that is just what he did.  

The Paris Marathon is HUGE!!!  With 50,000 runners it is one of the largest in the world.  Talking with Ronnie he isn't sure if any other race could top this one.  Running under the Arc De Triomphe, around the Eiffel Tower, along the Seine, along Rivoli Road, to Bastille Palace and much much more.  He said it was surreal running by all these places we had just visited as tourists. The race is also very international with 35% of the runners coming from abroad.  As Doug and the girls and I stood along the sidewalk holding a BYU flag waiting for Ronnie to pass by we thought we might get a few "go Cougars".  Nope, not one.  Instead we got a lot of "Allez Espana!" from Dougs soccer jersey he was wearing.  It was such a fun environment.  The girls were adorable watching and waiting anxiously for Ronnie to pass by.  And he did.  He looked great and was doing awesome!

 There he comes in his highlighter yellow shirt and socks

We gave him a few high fives and some energy gu and then headed over to meet Elisa and Will near the finish line.
The kids got to work making a sign for Ronnie.  They were going to hold it up as he passed by around the half way point but the sign didn't make it there.  So we joked that we would just change the "Run Ronnie Run"  into "Ran, Ronnie Ran"
It was definitely the best sign on the course.  With comments such as, "great running pal", "do it again" and my personal favorite,  "You are CRAZY to do it".  I love that Kayla girl.

The girls were on the lookout for Ronnie after he crossed the finish line.  There was a huge crowd but luckily Ronnie spotted Lauren and her big BYU flag.

 She thought it was extra fun to cover her dads face with it

 THE cutest fans on the course!

 So after running 26 plus miles you would think one would want to sit, or lay down... for a really long time.  Not Ronnie.  he wants to walk the streets of Paris searching for the perfect post race lunch and make his way to the Eiffel Tower.  And that is just what we did.   We got one last chance to chat with the Teheros before returning to the states.
We took advantage of the extra people to take our picture sans selfie.

 One of these days I am going to edit these pictures...one of these days

 We sat right here and ate lunch and then I made flower crowns for the kids.
It was Paris Perfection

We said our goodbyes to the Teheros and made our way back to our hotel for Ronnie to shower.  After that we continued our search for the best baguette in Paris and ended up with a pretty good one from Del Montel in Monceau.  There is a contest each year to find the best baguette in Paris.  The winner provides the Prime Minister his bread that year.  Of course my husband did his research and found all the winning bakeries over the last 10 years and this was one of them.  We broke that puppy open and tried to take a walk through Parc Monceau but it was closed for the night.  So we hopped on the train and headed for dinner in the ritzy neighborhood of St. Germain Des Pres.  It must not have been that impressive because neither Ronnie nor I can remember where/what we actually ate.  Or maybe it being 8 months ago that we were in Paris has something to do with it.

Now you know, it is said that if you and your significant other lock a padlock to a bridge and then throw the key in the river that your love will be sealed forever.  And you also know that when you are in Paris it is required to do all things sappy and romantic.  We had both heard of this separately and decided to order a padlock and surprise the other while in Paris.  We had no idea we were both doing the same thing.  It wasn't until I was checking out with my Amazon cart that I noticed Ronnie had put a lock in the cart too.  True love I tell ya, true love.

So we settled on his more romantic and rustic heart shaped lock and packed it away for just the right night.

 There was NO room on this bridge.  I ended up nearly upside down over the fence trying to hook it to the backside of the fence.

 We finally found our spot and then threw the key overboard

We know we don't need a lock and key to seal our love forever but it was a pretty great memory to share together.
This whole trip was such a wonderful adventure together.  It is so comforting to know that even after our kids are grown and gone we will still have eachother to travel through life together.  See, the sappy goo just can't be helped.

And with that we said AuRevoir to Paris.
It was such a fun trip being able to explore with Ronnie.  We missed our kids dearly but knew they were being well taken care of by Grandma Chapman.
And I was happy to be returning home on the same flight as Ronnie this time.