I saw a rainbow in Paris today

I packed up my bag last night and caught an early train out of Amsterdam. It still took several hours to get here and it was around 2pm by the time I checked into the hotel. It was raining when I left Amsterdam, and rained on and off during the train ride, but when I arrived in Paris the sun was peeking through the clouds and it looked like good weather the rest of the day. I was a little off on my assessment.

I wanted to do the city tour bus thing since it is such a good way to see neighborhoods I otherwise wouldn't make it to. I dropped off my bag and headed out to catch the closest bus. I rode around for a few hours checking out the sites. And the whole time it would look like it was going to start raining and then the sun would come out again. So I felt pretty comfortable getting off the bus about a 40 minute walk away from the hotel to grab something to eat. But by the time I finished my sandwich it was starting to look pretty menacing to me. I decided to start walking back, but to follow one of the local bus routes just in case. About 10 minutes later what do I see? Lightening. And where am I? Standing on a sidewalk along the river next to a big metal street light.

Now for those of you who don't already know, I have a completely irrational fear that I'm going to be hit by lightening someday. And all I can think is "Crap, not in Paris." So I start hoofing it to the next bus stop. And that's when it occurs to me that if I get on the bus to get out of the storm, I'm going to have to get off the bus back into the storm. I ended up waiting things out with about 30 other people in a covered area near the Louvre.

The rain started to let up about the same time I noticed the crepe place across the street. I got myself a chocolate crepe and continued on to the bus stop. By the time I finished my crepe the rain had stopped completely and the sun was back out again. So I started walking again and not too long after that is when I saw the rainbow.