“And i would walk 500 miles…”
…and I would walk 500 more.” This is a line from a song my brother Tony and I first coopted as “our song” back in the early ‘90s and its now the song that makes me think of all 4 of my brothers whenever it comes on. It is from the Proclaimers - I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) and is the theme song to the movie Benny & Joon with Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson. We even played it at our wedding.
It is now also the anthem I’ll most associate with Paris, and maybe this whole year of travel. While we walked a lot in Portugal, we really hit our stride in Paris. Over the course of the 6 days we’ve been here, I’ve logged 92,538 steps, and if today is even half of previous days totals, we’ll each have surpassed 100,000 steps in 7 days. So while its not in miles, this feels very apropos to the song.
Along our path, we’ve seen nearly every major site Paris has to offer. We’ve strolled the Champs-Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe, we walked, ran, and ferried down the Seine River, scaled the Eiffel Tower (the kids and I walked down all the steps), navigated the underground catacombs, toured the Louvre and the Palace Versailles, strolled through the Jardin des Tuileries, spent sometime in a museum of illusions, and found the storied alchemist Nicholas Flamel’s home - thought to be the oldest in Pars. Mom, Ava, and I even learned how to make three delicious French desserts from a retired chef in her home.
Our time here has been magical. Tomorrow we head to Disneyland Paris, so the magic continues - and so will the walking!
