A big Running Tour of 18 miles (29 km) with Alina, one thousand discoveries in Paris!

Alina - Running in the "Jardin des Plantes" (Garden of the Plants)

9:05 AM - Alina, from New York, in the midst of preparations for a marathon, wished to visit Paris but fully respecting her training plan. 
This day, a long run was planned: we ran 18 miles (29 kilometers)... Ideal to see Paris!

Paris is vast and rich in interesting places.
What do we see in Paris by running on a long distance?

Water: the Ourcq Canal, the Saint Martin Canal, the "Bassin de l'Arsenal", the river Seine...

The river Seine

squares: the "Place de la République", the "Place des Vosges", the "Place de la Bastille", the "Place de la Contrescarpe", the "Place de l'Alma", the "Place de la Concorde", ...

"Place de la Concorde"

museums: the National Museum of Natural History, the Army Museum (Invalides), the Rodin Museum, the Guimet Museum, the Galleria Palace, the Palace of Tokyo, the Museum of Modern Art, the "Petit" and "Grand Palais", the "Jeu de Paume", the "Orangerie", the Louvre, the Grévin Museum, the Orsay Museum...

bridges: the Bridge of Austerlitz, the Bridge of Carrousel, the Royal Bridge, the Bridge of "la Concorde", the Alexandre III Bridge, the Bir Hakeim Bridge, the Bridge of "l'Alma", the Bridge of Arts...

the "Pont des Arts" (in the background, the Museum of the Louvre)

famous boulevards and avenues, numerous statues, splendid monuments, secular churches, beautiful covered passages...

parks and gardens: the "Buttes Chaumont", the garden of Luxembourg, the "Champ de Mars", the gardens of the Trocadéro, the "cours de La Reine", the garden of the Tuileries, the garden of the Plants where we greeted some animals:

Alina and the Stegosaurus of the garden of the Plants

Alina and the Mammoth of the garden of the Plants

and of course the "Tour Eiffel"!

Paris is beautiful and has so many amazing aspects!

Merci Alina !

The route of the big tour:

Two sports tours in Paris with Rosalie

Rosalie - Medici Fountain - Luxembourg garden

9:04 AM - With Rosalie, who comes from the beautiful city of Quebec, we made two visits of Paris by running.

An important mist covered Paris the first day, making buildings and monuments hardly visible:

Rosalie - The dome of the Invalides can slightly be seen

Where are the towers of Notre-Dame, usually visible since the bank?
The Musée d'Orsay getting free of the mist (in the right of the photo)

And there, what is this monument which is in the background of the photo?

Yes!... The Eiffel Tower which we find a little farther, a little less veiled:

On our way, we admired a work of Dubuffet, installed for the occasion of the FIAC :

Rosalie - "Petit Palais" - Welcome Parade, of Jean Dubuffet - 2008

and a little bit further west, the beautiful Galliera palace, the Paris Museum of Fashion:

Rosalie - "Palais Galleria"

For our second run, the sky was a little more clear.
Our first strides led us near to the Pantheon, place "Sainte Geneviève":

Rosalie - "Place du Panthéon" - The Panthéon. On the left, the "Sainte-Geneviève" library and in the background, the Saint-Étienne-du-Mont church.

We went to greet the oldest tree of Paris, a Black Locust tree planted in 1601 by the botanist Jean Robin (the tree is native of North America) :

Rosalie - "Square René Viviani"

After the Museum of Fashion, we went to see  the first shop of the famous shoes creator, Christian Louboutin (notice that the shop occupies the premises of a former printing office):

Rosalie - In front of the Christian Louboutin's first shop, in the Véro Dodat gallery

Back on the Left bank, we ran on the old pavements of the "Cour du Commerce Saint André", next to one of the oldest Cafés in Europe (1682): the Café Procope, just under Benjamin Franklin's eyes who was one of the regular customers of the Café (we say that he would have written a part of the United States Constitution there):

Rosalie - "Cour du Commerce Saint André"

A kind newspaper seller was kind enough to take the last photo of our tour. Funny of to have the view of a newspaper seller inside his kiosk!

Rosalie, Paris Running Tour - Avenue of the Général Leclerc

Merci Rosalie !

The routes of the tours :

14 miles visiting Paris while running to prepare the New-York marathon, with Jess

Jess - "Pont des Arts" (Bridge of the Arts) and view on the Island of the City ("île de la Cité")

7h11 - Jess, marathon runner of New York (USA), in business trip in Paris, had two objectives by making a running tour: discover Paris and make a long run to prepare the New York marathon.

We thus made a running of 14 miles (23 km) in Paris, distance which allows a beautiful visit of the city and the discovery of its numerous aspects.

At first, a short pause to remember the objective, 26.2 miles (42.195 km) in New York:

Jess - Avenue de New-York

Then, from the avenue of New York, a small ascent (light preparation of the hilly New York marathon route) to join the Esplanade of the Trocadéro, the most beautiful view on the Eiffel Tower:

Jess - "Esplanade du Trocadéro"

We then leave the Eiffel Tower by the "Champ de Mars":

Jess - "Champ de Mars"

Formerly used for military maneuvers, the Champ de Mars is now an ideal training ground for the runners: firm and supple hard-packed surface, buckle of 2 km, garden always opened (without railings), enlightened paths... Perfect circuit for the early morning runners!

Much more east of Paris, it is on the sandy soil of the Lutetia arenas that we ran:

Jess - "Arènes de Lutèce"

Nowadays, we meet "pétanque" players or amateur soccer players there... About 2 000 years ago, there, we could see gladiators fighting, wild animals and also theater plays.
Paris, at the time, was Roman and was called Lutetia.

Of course, we did not miss numerous majors places of Paris, for example, the "Pont des Arts" (as we can see in the first photo of this article with its beautiful view on the Island of the City) or the Louvre Pyramid:

Jess - The Louvre pyramid

Since this sports stroll in Paris, Jess ran the marathon of New York with a beautiful performance. 
Paris Running Tour hopes to have contributed to this a little... ;)

Merci Jess !

The route of the tour :

Medieval art, Art nouveau, Modern Art, 10 miles (16 km) in Paris with Lysa

Lysa - Ile de la Cité (Island of the City)

7:03 AM - With Lysa, from Buffalo (New York), we made a 10 mile run (16 kilometers) to discover the numerous artistic facets of Paris. More than 2000 years of History... and artistic and architectural creations!

Did you notice the numerous Parisian metro entrances with these arabesques forms, as the one that we see on the photo above next to Lysa?
These entrances are typical artistic creations of the beginning of the 20th century, this art which we called the "Art Nouveau".
The creator, Hector Guimard, very representative artist of the "Art Nouveau" movement, realized 141 of these entrances of the Parisian subway from 1900 till 1912. Some entrance are even covered with a glass roof.
Today, there are only 86 left, 2 with a glass roof as the "Porte Dauphine" one (West of Paris on the Avenue Foch):

Hector Guimard's subway entrances were offered to the subways of other cities as Montreal, Mexico City, Chicago, etc. There is even one in the Washington National Gallery of Art!


Still on the Island of "La Cité", we also admired two Medieval Art examples (vast ensemble of the Middle Ages Arts, covering a period of 1000 years):

• The famous Cathedral Notre-Dame-de-Paris, representative of the Gothic Art:

Lysa and the Cathedral "Notre Dame de Paris"
(on the left, the temporary installations celebrating 850 years of Notre-Dame)

• The Clock of the Conciergerie (for more information, read this article) :

Lysa - Tour de l'Horloge (tower of the Clock)

Further west, we met two forms of more recent arts:

• A plant wall! One of the first green walls realized by Patrick Blanc, who invented the concept of plant walls. This one was created in 2004, on one of the Quai Branly Museum administration building walls:

Lysa - Vegetation wall (Patrick Blanc 2004)

• And of course, the famous Iron tower, the Eiffel Tower!

The Tower was built for the World Fair of 1889. 
From 1889 to 1931, it was the highest monument in the world.
During its construction, it was very criticized, but obtained a big success during the world fair of 1889, success which fell rather fast (in spite of a renewal of curiosity during the World Fair of 1900)
We even intended to destroy it... It is now the most emblematic symbol of Paris!

Lysa - Eiffel tower

It's a pleasure to run in Paris!

Merci Lysa !

The route of the tour:

Parisian perspectives with Karine

Karine - Le Pont Neuf (the New bridge)

7:00 AM - Karine, runner from Quebec, chose to make a Paris Running Tour to prepare the half marathon of Montreal, very close, and also, of course, to take advantage of the sports visit to discover the charm of a Parisian circuit.

What beautiful perspectives offered by the morning sun! Look at the photo above with the light beginning to enlighten the "Pont Neuf" (New Bridge), the oldest bridge of Paris (See this article).

We left early on this Sunday. At the start of the running, it was still dark. The silhouette of the Eiffel Tower appears in the dawn...

Karine - Alexandre III bridge

... as the Louvre, while the morning comes:

Karine - The Museum of the Louvre seen from the left bank

Still running towards the rising sun, we reached the Latin Quarter to meet the Sorbonne University:

Karine - "Rue Saint Jacques" - The University of the Sorbonne (and its observatory)

The Sorbonne goes follows the "rue Saint Jacques", former Roman way. The building which we see is the third version of the Sorbonne and dates of the 1880s. The Sorbonne University was established in the XIIIth century by Robert de Sorbon. It is in the heart of the Latin Quarter. 
Latin Quarter? 
Hispanic district? No, no!
In the Middle Ages, the students already came from the whole world to study there (among them, Dante, Erasmus). To speak together, a single shared language: the Latin! The passers-by eventually called the district Latin Quarter.

A little later, we cross the "Pont des Arts" (bridge of the Arts), considered as one of the most romantic of Paris (remember the Padlocks...)
What amazing perspectives on this bridge!

Karine - Pont des Arts - Click to enlarge this panorama

On the North side, the Louvre and the entrance of the "Cour Carrée" (Squared Courtyard), on the South side, the Institute of France, on the West side, the Orsay museum and the "Grand Palais" far off and lastly on the East side, the Island of "La Cité", which cuts the river Seine with the point formed by the "Square du Vert Galant".

Later by leaving the Louvre, we discover the perspective onto the Opera of Paris, the Garnier Opera. The architect Charles Garnier had refused to see trees along the Avenue of the Opera so that the perspective onto his Opera is not spoiled.

Karine - "Avenue de l'Opéra"

On our way back, we cross the "Place de la Concorde", look at both photos below, perspective onto the North and perspective onto the South:

Karine - "Place de la Concorde"

The church of "La Madeleine" and the National Assembly seem to be reflected. 
This was intentional. In 1806, Napoleon the 1st adopted the project of creation of a new facade for the former Palace of Duchess Louise of Bourbon, become "Assemblée Nationale" (National Assembly).
This new Colonnade (link in French)  of the facade reminds by its columns the facade of the Madeleine which faces it.
A new axis is given to the facade forming an angle to the original axis of the Bourbon palace and finally, columns are raised by the steps of an impressive staircase so that the Bridge of "La Concorde" does not mask the sight on the bottom of the colonnade.

Paris, always in the search for the harmony!

Merci Karine !

The route of the tour :

Some nice places to run in Paris

Hayley on Paris historical axis, after the Louvre, the Garden of the Tuileries, the "place de la Concorde" and the Obelisk of Louxor, the Champs-Elysées, the Arc of Triomphe and the business center of "la Défense" with its "Grande Arche"

7:30 AM - Hayley, who lives in Vancouver, began her stay in Paris and in Europe by a sports discovery of the city thanks to a 10 miles route in the company of Paris Running Tour.
Hayley is journalist for Lainey Gossip and also a personal trainer. 
We further recommend her article Travelling and weight management. We fully agree her first advice for travelling ;) => see the web link that comes with it... Thank you Hayley :)

Discover with us some beautiful places of Paris, to run (or not) :

• The "Cours de la Reine" : This beautiful alley created by Marie de Medici in 1618 is a nice place to run, see this beautiful lawn surrounded with majestic trees and which welcomes a number of statues. At Paris Running Tour, we call this perspective "The Alley of the Statues". On the photo below, we can see successively the monument to the Russian Expeditionary force having fought in France during the World War I, the statue of General Lafayette (do you remember the small little tortoise ?), the statue of the Liberator Simon Bolivar then the one of the King of the Belgians, Albert the 1st.

Hayley - "Cours de la Reine"

• "Place du Palais Royal" : Having passed by the garden of the Tuileries (see the photo at the beginning of this article), having crossed the Louvre by the passage which leads of the Pyramid to the Street of Rivoli, you discover the beautiful square of the Palais Royal. From there, you can join the gardens of the Palais Royal, the beautiful garden protected by the galleries of the Palais Royal.

Hayley - "Place du Palais Royal"

• The "new banks of the river Seine" : We could not resist to the envy to make a small sprint on the 100 meters running track of the new banks of the Seine, small 2 km paradise in the center of Paris for the runners. Not so easy to accelerate after about 6 miles...

On our road, we were also able to admire:

• The "Hôtel de Ville de Paris" (Paris City Hall), which, this day, welcomed the President of the Federal Republic of Germany (German flags joined to the French flags):

Hayley - "Hôtel de Ville de Paris"

• The magnificent front door of the "Petit Palais":

Hayley - Le Petit Palais

• as well as one of the Parisian Statues of Liberty (discover them here) :

Hayley - Statue of Liberty ("Arts et Métiers")

Merci Hayley !

The route of the tour :