It’s peak bloom in Washington, DC and the city is so pretty in pink right now. It’s also race time for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler and I can’t wait to run it for the third time in a row. It’s not my goal race for the distance this year, that will be the GW Parkway Classic at the end of the month so I just want to soak it all up on Sunday and have fun running. Until then, here are a few reads that I enjoyed this week:

• This article in the New Yorker explores the relationship between clothes and dignity for new migrants to Paris. I’d have love the piece to feature a few women though… 
• Male candidates are routinely covered as both serious contenders AND multi-faceted human beings. Buttigied taught himself Norwegian! Beto O’Rourke was in a punk band named Foss in the 90s! Meanwhile we keep having to read about the women’s “likeability issues.” Well, guess what? They have fun hobbies and vast intellectual curiosity too, as this piece in Vogue points out. 
• How to read more books! I just finished “Team of Vipers.” Painfully. Do you find it hard to get through a book when you don’t like the narrator/main character? I stuck with it for some reason but that’s definitely time I could have spent doing more enjoyable stuff or, you know, reading more enjoyable books! I’ll also add get rid of cable to the list above 😉
• D.C. Restaurants Could Do More to Welcome Diners With Disabilities. I learned so much from this piece by Laura Hayes. Accessibility is about more than whether a wheelchair fits through a door. Dim lighting can make it hard for the hard of hearing community to properly communicate via sign language for example ….
• Mac and kimcheese? Yes, please 😉 
• I guess they’re not allowed to call them Nutella M&Ms but hazelnut spread M&Ms are a thing, and shocker they taste like Nutella. Let me know if you spot them anywhere in the area! I *need* to try those!!!

• Cats Might Not Act Like It, But They Know Their Names As Well As Dogs, Study Says. I believe it. Adorable f*ckers 😉
• And finally, a running related link! What happens to all those bananas? by my friend Mary-Beth Hensley highlights how races are evolving to become more eco-friendly events. As for those bananas, the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile run composts the peels and donates the uneaten to a local food pantry. 

Have a great weekend! Are you running any races? 

Last Sunday, I went to the Audi Field, D.C. United’s brand new stadium, for the first time. I *loved* the new stadium and it was the perfect opportunity to debut my brand new TWO STARS Equipe de France jersey but, in hindsight, a very poor choice of recovery activity after running my very first 20 miles training run. 

And speaking of Equipe de France, look who’s on the cover of Time!! Mbappé is just the fourth footballer after Lionel Messi, Neymar and Mario Balotelli to grace the cover of Time magazine, though the article draws some harsh comparisons with his teammate Neymar who’s had quite a lackluster year. 

Navy-Air Force Half Marathon, Army 10 Miler, Marine Corps Marathon... The military is one of the major industry organizing races in Washington. And speaking of “The People’s Marathon,” Coach Tammy Whyte shares some useful tips with Washingtonian for people running it in a few weeks. People like me!! I just got my bib assignment… sh*t’s getting real y’all 😉

You need to have 20/20 vision to be an astronaut but a space camp in Alabama offers blind children a small taste of what it’s like to go out into the cosmos.

The United Nations declared October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child. To mark the occasion, the New York Times asked young photographers to show us what 18-year-old girlhood look like around the world. 

Millennials are killing everything: politics as we know it (CNN) and this just in, cheese (Bloomberg). Well, Kraft Single and other over-processed American cheese at least. So I say kill away millennials. That crap deserves to die!

Just in time for Halloween, Drink Company’s latest Pop Up Bar has a true crime theme. I got a sneak peek on Thursday ahead of its October 11th opening. And by sneak, I mean I drank all the drinks! make sure you swing by before November 3rd. 

An estimated 11 million horses, donkeys and mules were requisitioned during World War I, as well as 100,000 dogs and 200,000 pigeons. Paris is going to build a national monument in the 6eme arrondissement to commemorate their service. 

That’s all for this week. I’m off to Leesburg, VA to celebrate one of my good friend’s wedding. Good thing I’m officially TAPERING and “only” have to run 14 miles on Saturday! 

I have a busy weekend, so let’s just dive into it. Here are some articles I enjoyed reading this over the last few days:

The biggest news of the week was of course that coveted third Michelin star for the Inn at Little Washington. I wrote about it {in French} for French Morning but you can also read about it, in English, in Food & Wine magazine.  And speaking of Michelin guide, dream job alert, you can apply to be an inspector here.

In other restaurant news, I have never actually eaten at a Waffle House before, but I learned A LOT about them and their role in natural disaster preparedness this week.  

This thread on abortion laws and unwanted pregnancies by Design Mom. Spot on.

As an African American woman of colour in the wine industry, my friend Julia Coney has been very outspoken about its need for representation that mirrors its customers. White men aren’t the only one who drink wine so why does it feel like they are the only one who make, sell and write about it? Anyhoo, this week Julia talked with Forbes Magazine about what the wine industry can learn from its black consumers and, as always, she makes some very good points. 

The average American woman is estimated to use over 16,000 tampons in her lifetime — and yet they remain surprisingly mystifying. The commercial tampon as we know it has been shaped and re-shaped by a myriad of invisible forces — like genuine concern for women’s wellness, certainly, but also sexism, panic, feminism, capitalism, and secrecy. This The Atlantic piece sheds some light on this important little piece of cotton. Warning: long read!

View at Medium.com

Sometimes I feel like I’m almost to join the #BraSquad but then I always just feel too self conscious. Jen Spyra, a staff writer for “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” wrote this funny piece about taking off her shirt and exercising in just her bra. You go girl! 

Meanwhile I’ll be keeping my shirt on when I run the Navy Air Force Half Marathon on Sunday. Wish me luck!

So Marine Corps Marathon is in exactly 50 days and I’m starting to freak out! Here are a few things that distracted me this week:

• Ready, set, eat! We have to wait a few more days to find out which D.C. restaurants will be awarded prestigious Michelin stars but until then, the 2019 Bib Gourmand were just announced. Michelin’s ‘cheap eats’ list (a diner should be able to get two courses and a glass of wine or a dessert for $40 or less, excluding tax and tip) has doubled in size from 22 to 39.  With 2Amy’s and Boqueria being dropped from last year’s list, that 19 new restaurants added to the list. You can see the 2019 Bib Gourmand here and read the Washington Post’s analysis of what the increase reveals about the D.C. restaurant scene here.  Does Himitsu’s omission mean it’s definitely getting a star? We’ll find out on September 13! 

• • And speaking of food, I’m invited to a friend’s house for BBQ this weekend. Since she’s a vegetarian, I’m going to give this grilled tofu with chimichurri sauce a try! Miam miam!
  • There’s a new museum in town! Well. Sort of. After an expansion, the Glenstone Museum in Potomac Maryland is ready to re-open on October 4th bigger and better than before. But the site, which has been designed around visitor experience, doesn’t want to cater to the instagram crowd and doesn’t want too many visitors to come visit. And yet tickets went as fast as those for the Yayoi Kusama exhibit and it looks like I’ll have to wait until at least late November to visit. Womp womp.
  • Always fun to see some familiar faces in the local paper. Kimberly Wattrick, owner of Summit to Soul and Courtney Dredden Carter were featured in When Metro stopped running reliably, these people started running to work. ps: I did my second run-mute this week, though I had to cut it short and hop on the metro at Woodley Park. I need to leave the office a little earlier next time!

(Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)

• Just in time for my trip (in 14 days exactly, but who’s counting?) the New York Times spends 36 hours in Paris, and around the Seine more specifically. Making a few notes… Le Vent d’Armor for example sounds worthy of a visit. And it’s been years since I’ve hung out at the Parc André Citroën, though I used to go very often since a lot of my high school classmates lived in that part of town and it was a great spot to cool down on those hot summer days when we were stuck in the city.

Any new Paris spot you recommend I try while I’m there? I’ll be running La Grande Classique 10 miles race from the Eiffel Tower to Versailles Castle, definitely swing by L’Atelier des Lumieres and have meals planned already at Hugo & Co and La Veranda by Gordon Ramsay (when in Versailles!). What else should I do?? 

ps: I’ll be taking a side trip to Vienna as well, so taking recommendations for that city too!