Here goes another round of things in Paris that exist that I've never heard of, even after three years of living here! I love this game. Not really, it makes me wonder what the hell I have been doing here these past few years. To backtrack a bit, my gym membership recently expired (Antoine!) and if I'm going to continue with my strict diet of triple cream cheeses, saucisson and copious amounts of wine that I have grown accustomed to, I'm going to have to move my bottom. My body was just not built to stuff my face, sit around and hope that lower body doesn't realize the thousands of calories that have been consumed. So unfair.
Since I have to wait until the fall to renew my gym membership, my only option is to go running; my least favorite form of exercise in Paris. On top of being an ugly runner who huffs, buffs and waddles down the "rue", I also don't have cute and fit official workout gear. I wear old Bat Mitzfah party favor t-shirts from the 90s and too-tight yoga pants that I need to pull up every few minutes as ass pours out of them. Not a pretty sight. How is a girl to stay fit and fab in a city that celebrates eating so well?
Low and behold a solution presented itself, or rather Séb produced one as I was complaining that my "fat shorts" from last summer are still too tight. The Promenade Plantée! What is this place?! You must be chuckling because apparently this is where everyone in Paris secretly goes running, and that this is hardly a new discovery, but to me, it is. I can be an oblivious faux-risienne sometimes.
Similar to the Highline in Manhattan, Paris offers their version of an abandoned elevated viaduct that runs along Avenue Daumesnil in the 12th. Filled with flowers, greenery, light vandalism (hey, it's Paris!), a well paved road, other joggers who are working on their own fitness and are hardly concerned about my tacky attire, and a notable homeless man stalking a group of Asian girls calling them Tokyo, who then in perfect French responded that they were in fact not from Japan. The Promenade Plantée is the perfect solution for staying trim this summer, above and off the streets.
Here are some things that caught my eye on my jog turned power waddle...
Don't mind if I do...
Baise la Police.
Just precious.
Warm heart, cold lyric...
Dramz.
...and clearly the reason I was beckoned to this place.What I would give to live in this building. Just to see my mother's face as we approached my new apartment located between the loin and butt cheek of an Adonis. A girl can dream, right?
Bon week-end à tous!
