Running in the Parisian Passages with Michelle and Susan

Susan and Michelle - The river Seine near the Tuileries garden, in front of the Orsay Museum

9:03 AM - Susan and Michelle are two New-York road-runners (NY - USA). Michelle prepares at present the Marathon of Chicago. After a first visit of Paris last year, their choice was for a little bit different route.

We started near the Seine on the left bank. Look on the photo above, the new "emmarchement" in front of the Orsay Museum, "emmarchement" which is a part of the new banks of the Seine (very much enjoyed by runners).

Having crossed the pedestrian footbridge Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, run in the Garden of the Tuileries and admired the place Vendôme, we were able to cross our first covered passage, the long passage Choiseul:

Michelle, Susan - Passage Choiseul

Not far from there, it is with pleasure that we met the beautiful "salle Favart", National Theater of the "Opéra Comique" :

Michelle and Susan - Opéra Comique

It is the third "Salle Favart" built in 1898, both previous ones having burned.

Second covered passage on our route, the Passage of the Panoramas, the oldest passage of Paris (we had already spoken about it here) :

Susan, Michelle - "Passage des Panoramas"

Just in front of the "Passage des Panoramas" is the Passage Jouffroy where a curious medieval character welcomes you:

Susan and Michelle with a character of the Grévin Museum

It is about one of the numerous wax characters of the Grévin Museum, the Parisian counterpart of Madam Tussauds of London. The entrance of the museum is situated in the Grand boulevards and the exit in the Passage Jouffroy.

A little later, we found an old acquaintance, the Statue of Liberty (well, a Parisian younger sister...):

Susan, Michelle - The Statue of Liberty in the museum of "Arts et Métiers"

To know more about the Parisian statues of Liberty, click here.

We continued our road and again crossed magnificent passages:

"Passage du Grand Cerf"

"Galerie Vero-Dodat"

"Galerie Vivienne"

These Parisian passages were approximately 150 in the middle of the 19th century, there are less than thirty nowadays. Our running allowed us to cross nine of them, among the most beautiful:

We ended the tour by crossing the beautiful garden of the "Palais Royal", isolated from the Parisian street by its long galleries of arcades,

Michelle, Susan - Garden of the "Palais Royal"

participated in the work of art constituted by the Columns of Buren ("Les deux plateaux" of the Artist Daniel Buren),

On the columns of Buren in the "Palais Royal"

and made a small break in front of the Louvre before crossing again the Seine to join the Left bank.

Susan and Michelle - The Louvre museum

Look on the Louvre Pyramid the sign of the Third Paradise, bound to The temporary exhibition of Michelangelo Pistoletto.

Merci Susan, merci Michelle !

The route of the tour :