PARIS FAMILY PHOTOS 4.0

Well, looks like we might be in Paris for a while. We were supposed to fly out Tuesday morning but because of the Iceland ash cloud, the airports have been closed for a couple days and won't open before 3 p.m. Monday if then. In the meantime, I seem to have caught a cold. (That's the real pain in the ash, if you ask me.) At any rate, please enjoy more photos from our life in Paris.

Jen and her mellifluous tones performing at the Paris Opera House.

Tour Eiffel and the Pont d'lena Bridge over the River Seine.

Sacre-Coeur, which offers one of the most expansive views of Paris. Certainly breathtaking but personally I preferred Notre Dame.

 

Baker and Jen in front of Tour Eiffel which, after the sun goes down, is all aglow with sparkling lights for the fiirst five minutes of each hour.

"Young Girl with Roses on Her Hat" at the Musee Rodin.

Musee du Louvre.

Parisian roses for Jen on her birthday.

Grape-eating gargoyle at Notre Dame.

Turns out the only thing holding the Eiffel Tower together is this sling, rope and single carabiner. Who knew?

Baker and Jen (in spiffy new birthday coat purchased at Galeries Lafayette) in front of the Tour Eiffel.

AREA FAMILY'S PARIS PHOTOS

Jen 'n' I shortly after the nine-and-a-half hour flight from Seattle to Paris.

The Seine from high on Notre Dame.

View from this morning's 40-minute run.

                                    

Jen and Bake at Notre Dame.

                                     

Me goofing around on one of the vending machine rental bikes. 

'Nother view from this morning's run.

Our remodeled living room. I mean, the Paris Opera House.

Mona Lisa ... whatever.

Jen and Bake avec baguettes en Rue Cler.

Dude in a gorilla suit who scared us half to death outside the Paris Opera House then wanted money for doing so.

The street where we live: Rue du Champs de Mars.

McQ's PARIS-ROUBAIX PHOTOS

Gather 'round kids, here're some phots from the 2010 Hell of the North! And shout-out, props and all that to Baker McQuaide (age 11) who came up with much better pics than I did!

Race poster in Roubaix.

Second-place finisher Thor Hushovd survives the Arenburg Forest. (Bake McQ, photo)

Big Tom Boonen on the streets of Roubaix just before entering the Velodrome. (Bake McQ, photo)

 

Close-up of the pave at Compiegne, about an hour northeast of Paris and where Paris-Roubaix actually starts. (Bake McQ, photo)

Fabian Cancellara's winning bike is the front one on the left.

George Hincapie at the Compiegne sign-in.

Baker McQ at work.

After Paris-Roubaix, an exhausted Baker McQuaide and mum Jen on the train from Lille back to Paris.

AREA FAMILY IN FRANCE

A day after witnessing Fabian C. destroy the peloton at Paris-Roubaix, Area Man goes on an hour-long run under the Tour Eiffel, along the Seine to Place de la Concorde, past Esplanade des Invalides and back to Rue Cler. He is becoming quite the Francophile and will no doubt be annoying about it once he returns to les Etats Unis.

LOTS OF FUN THANGS COMING UP

Big few days which leads to an even bigger week and a half or so. First up, we're heading to Seattle on Wednesday where I'll be doing a slide show-presentation thingee for Team in Training at the big REI. Should be lots of fun. Thursday, check out my story in the The Seattle Times Northwest Weekend section about our little exploratory trip of Birch Bay, Drayton Harbor and Semiahmoo Spit.

Also on Thursday, we fly to Paris where we'll be for the next 10 days! Since we're staying in an apartment (near Rue Cler), once we're back I plan to annoy people by beginning sentences that refer to our time there with "Well, when we were living in Paris, we would ..."

Oh, and guess what happens to be taking place during our time in France: the 108th edition of Paris-Roubaix, the queen of the Classics, the Hell of the North. And guess what, we're hooking up with some British tour group to watch the race. Should be a gas, gas, gas.

For old time sake--and to give Tom a bit of a boost for this Sunday's race--I thought I'd run this photo of big Tom Boonen and I hanging out in Pasadena during last year's Tour of California.