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: