A new Running Tour in Paris with Manoella

Manoella - "Opéra de Paris" (Opéra Garnier)

7:09 AM - Do you remember Manoella, from São Paulo, Brazil? (See the post here.)

Bravo! Since last time, Manoella finished successfully her first marathon, the Paris Marathon. Manoella is now a marathon runner, a confirmed long distance runner since, three weeks only after the marathon, we redid easily a Paris Running Tour of more than 19 km.

In spite of the cold still present at this end of April, it is under a big sun that we admired the marvels of Paris:

- The Opéra Garnier (As we can see himit on the photo above)

- The Eiffel tower from the President Wilson avenue:

Manoella - President Wilson Avenue

- The Eiffel tower from "place de l'Alma", as well as the flame of the statue of Liberty (remember the article on this flame => here):

Manoella - "Place de l'Alma"

- The embassy of Brazil which we were able to greet (the wind was not very hard this morning and the flag was resting):

Manoella - Brazil Embassy, "Cours Albert 1er"

- The "Sacré-Coeur" of Montmartre from "Boulevard des Italiens":

Manoella - "Boulevard des Italiens" - Far-off, the "Sacré-Coeur"

- Two magnificent passages:

Manoella - "Passage Jouffroy", boulevard Montmartre - "Passage du Grand Cerf", rue Dussouds

- And many other amazing places of Paris...

Good return in Brazil!

Merci Manoella !

The route of the tour :

With Sharon, in front of the canons of the "Invalides"

Sharon - "Esplanade des Invalides"

7:34 AM - With Sharon, who lives in Bangkok (Thailand), we traveled a good distance by running, more than 16 km to visit Paris. It allowed us to discover numerous surprising and interesting places, especially for their history.

As we can see it on the photo above, we ran around the "Invalides", the famous "Hôtel des Invalides", created by Louis XIV to accommodate the injured veteran soldiers of his armies.

A canons battery faces the "Esplanade des Invalides". It was not at the origin of the French artillery but the got back enemy canons, belonging mainly to the Austrians and to the Turks.
These artillery still fire, for example every time France elected a new President of the Republic.

Close to the "Invalides", on our road, the Rodin museum. The Rodin museum is at the heart of a beautiful garden which exposes statues of the sculptor.
During a small break, since the street, we were able to admire one of the copies of a well-known work of Rodin, "Les Bourgeois de Calais":

Sharon - Rodin museum - "Les Bourgeois de Calais" - Far off, the museum

The work "Les Bourgeois de Calais " redraw a famous episode of the one hundred years war. 
In 1347, to end the terrible siege of the city of Calais and save the inhabitants, six burghers, a rope around the neck, surrendered in sacrifice to the English king Edouard III. His wife Philippa de Hainaut interceded to save them from the execution. It is what tells the Chronicle of the period...

At the exit of the museum, the visitors, doubtless reached by the artistic fiber, are used to decorating posts situated around the museum with their tickets:

On our road, near the Petit Palais, we saw Winston Churchill:

Sharon - Winston Churchill's statue

Later, we met the Expiatory Chapel, a quiet and little known place in Paris:

Sharon - The Expiatory Chapel

The Expiatory Chapel in the "Louis XVI square" - Click on the picture for a larger view

The Expiatory chapel is a monument dedicated to Louis XVI and to Marie-Antoinette. Louis XVIII ordered the construction of the building in the place where were buried the King and the Queen in 1793, after having been guillotined.

Avenue of the President Wilson, in this Saturday, it is a typical Parisian market which offered us the colors of his fruits:

Merci Sharon !

The route of the tour :

Running in April in Paris

Cherry trees in flower in Paris - Street Carrier-Belleuse / Boulevard Garibaldi - 15th arrondissement (district)

Cherry trees in flower, boulevard Garibaldi, along the elevated railway (line 6)

No doubt you know the song "April in Paris":

April in Paris

Chestnuts in blossom (or cherry trees in blossom... ;) )

Holiday tables under the trees

April in Paris

This is the feeling

No one can ever reprise

I never knew the charm of spring

I never met it face to face

I never knew my heart could sing

Never missed a warm embrace

Till April in Paris, 

Whom can I run to

What have you done to my heart

In April! In January! In October! No matter what month we are, it is always a pleasure to run in Paris!
Come and do a tour, a nice visit while running with Paris Running Tour!

Historic, artistic, scientific and sports stroll in Paris with Isabel

Isabel - Les Invalides

8:59 - Isabel, from Baltimore (USA), is a young, very regular runner as she runs 6 days a week. Visiting Paris, why not discovering the city by running?
We thus went for 17 kilometers with a good pace for a stroll which we can qualify as historical, artistic, scientific and of course, sporting.

Historical: 
Every Parisian place is a witness of the History, whether it is a small street, a small garden either a famous place or a most known building, for example, the "Invalides". The "Invalides" reminds the will of king Louis XIV to regroup the disabled war veterans in a dedicated place, the "Hôtel des Invalides". We can see the magnificent building in the background of the photo above. The dome is covered with 12 kilograms of gold deposited in fine layers. Inside, thrones the grave where rest Napoleon.

A little earlier, we crossed the "Arènes de Lutèce" (see the picture above). At the time of the Roman Empire, more than 15000 spectators saw there the gladiators fought and wildcats appeared. They also could applauded theater performances. These arenas, rediscovered in the 19th century, have now more modest dimensions, but we can always see games there, more quiet certainly, as football (soccer) or "pétanque" (a form of lawn bowling). Lutecia was the former name of Paris in this period.

Isabel - The Arènes of Lutèce

Scientific :
If there is a garden dedicated to the sciences, the "Jardin des plantes" is the one indeed:

Isabel - Garden of the plants/Natural history museum - In the background, the great Gallery of the Evolution

The garden of plants is, first of all, a botanical garden. It is a magnificent park which contains at the same time very big Greenhouses and specialized gardens, for example, the Alpine garden.
The buildings contain various galleries dedicated, among others, to the mineralogy and to the geology, to the evolution, and to the paleontology. We see the gallery of the paleontology on the photo below (see, behind the windows, the big skeleton of a whale):

Isabel - Gallery of Paleontology

The garden of plants also contains a menagerie, one of the first menageries of the world.
Even if these mammals do not exist any more, we were able to cross a mammoth on our way!

The Mammoth of the "Jardin des plantes" - By his side, Isabel

Artistic:
Paris is a city of Art which counts at least 130 museums. Among them, the Museum of Modern Art:

Isabel - Paris Modern Art Museum

The Museum of Modern Art presents numerous works of the 20th century, some are famous (Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Modigliani, ...)

Finally, even though if it was rejected by numerous artists during its creation, is not the Eiffel Tower a gigantic work of art?

Isabel - The Eiffel tower from the "Palais de Chaillot"

Merci Isabel !

The route of the tour: