July 24, Paris

First, thanks to those who have E-mailed or posted comments on the blog. It's nice to hear from people back home. In response to Doug's comment to yesterday's post: Yes, with this sciatic nerve problem, I do have occasional jolts of pain below the knee. The problem is not nearly as bad as it was the first few days, but I still feel as if I don't have complete control of my leg when going up and down stairs. I am able to walk miles, however, and I try to do so when it's not raining. The pain is minimal.

The rain took a pause yesterday morning, and I took advantage of the pause to walk into Central Paris again. The rain started up again about 1 p.m., so I ducked into the nearest subway station and rode back to the youth hostel, arriving in plenty of time to see the start of the Tour de France time trial in Grenoble on TV. Grenoble is the city where I once spent two semesters as a university exchange student.

Who says a time trial can't be exciting? There was a group of French-speaking teenagers gathered around the TV set with me, and they were screaming at the TV every time the time splits between Cadel Evans and Andy Schleck were flashed on the screen. Their favorite was Andy, of course. I can't imagine American teenagers going nuts over a time trial.

Today I am headed for the Champs Elysees to see the final circuits of the final stage in person. According to the forecast, it's not supposed to rain, and the afternoon temperatures are expected to climb way up into the upper 60s!

By the way, the guy in the bunk above me who annoyingly came to life after midnight every day is gone. There was only one other guy in the dorm last night, who came back to the hostel after I was already in bed, so I haven't met him yet.