Two early morning runs to discover Paris, with Agnes

Agnes - Pont au Change - La Conciergerie

Thursday 3 July 5:55 AM, Saturday 5 July 7:33 AM - Agnes lives in Los Angeles. Among the numerous visits which she foresaw to know Paris, Agnes included two Paris Running Tours, two morning visits to fully enjoy the capital.
Indeed, it is a good means to understand the city landscape, discover numerous sites, to know its history and its architecture but also to apprehend its places, streets and squares in a sport way.

First morning:
A few minutes after the sunrise, a start not far from the Opera. Let us go to see the Eiffel Tower.
Place of Concorde, we begin to see the tower far off:

Agnes - Place de la Concorde - Behind the Obelisk, far off, the Eiffel Tower (notice the preparations for the National Day, on July 14th, with the stands which are going to welcome the government for the parade)

Let us get closer. Place of the Alma, the Eiffel Tower is more and more visible:

Agnes - Place de l'Alma with the Flame of Liberty, an exact replica of the Statue of Liberty's flame and underneath, the famous tunnel of Alma
In the background, the Eiffel tower

Now, let us go to the Esplanade of the Trocadéro, one of the best locations to see the Eiffel Tower:

Agnes - "Esplanade du Trocadéro" - The Eiffel tower, very close!

Look at the landscape visible since the Esplanade, with in the background, on the left, Notre Dame, the Pantheon and the dome of the Invalides:

Let us go towards Notre Dame. After a few kilometers of running, we can see the Cathedral, closer this time, since the bridge of the Carrousel:

Agnes - Bridge if the Carrousel - Far off, on the Island of "La Cité", the Saint-chapel and Notre Dame

Second morning:
Small rain this morning.
Today, we are going to admire Notre Dame and the Pantheon. Let us cross the Bridge of the Arts (with a small "Hello" to the Eiffel Tower, far off):

Agnes - "Pont des Arts" - Far off, the Eiffel tower

We join the Pantheon and greet the great man recently arrived:

Agnes - The Panthéon

The Pantheon in restoration, as we can see it with these scaffolds on the photo, welcomes the exhibition of the artist JR.

We follow our route to finally find the Cathedral "Notre Dame de Paris":

Agnes - Notre Dame - Notice on the ground, the marks which testify of the presence of a street (which existed until the middle of 19th century. Under the feet of Agnes, the mark of a church, Sainte Genevieve des Ardens)

Before finishing our run, we cross another church, the Church Saint Eustache (built from 1532 till 1633):

Agnes - Church Saint Eustache

Funny detail, before the construction of the current church, stood a chapel (built at the beginning of the XIIIth century). This chapel was dedicated to Saint Agnès!

Merci Agnes !

The routes of the tours:

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 :

From the Latin Quarter to the Eiffel Tower with Peter

Peter - "Place de l'Alma", far off in the axis of avenue Montaigne, the "Sacré Coeur" on the "Butte Montmartre"

10:09 AM - Peter, who lives in Arhus, Denmark, prepares his next marathon, which will take place in April (Rotterdam or Hamburg). The training of Peter began well, notably by a long Running Tour in Barcelona with our friends of Barcelona Running Tour, a 21 km tour (~13 mi).
On this Friday, February 15th, two days later, it is with a running done at a good pace that we did 19 km. We combined "the useful and the pleasant" by evoking the history and the cultural places of Paris.
As we can see above, we did a small break "place de l'Alma" (located just after the 28th km of the marathon of Paris ;) ) with in the continuation of the avenue Montaigne, the Sacred Heart which dominates Paris since the Mound Montmartre.

A little later, having "climbed" the small hill of Chaillot, a nice tourist suggested photographing us since the esplanade of the Trocadéro:

The Eiffel tower from the Trocadéro

Back to the left bank, in the garden of the Luxembourg, we admired the Fountain Medici, formerly called " Cave of the Luxembourg ":

Peter - The Fountain Medici - In the background, to the right, the Panthéon

By enlarging the photo, you can see Galatée and Acis the shepherd, threatened by the Cyclops Polyphème. It is Marie de Medici, the widow of king Henri IV, who made build this fountain in 1630, in memory of the Florentine gardens of her childhood.

Not far from the garden of the Luxembourg, since the street of the Val de Grâce, appears the church of the same name:

Peter - Church of the "Val de Grace"

Another queen, Anne of Austria, made build the Church of the "Val de Grâce". The building was ended in 1667 (one of the highest domes in the period). Wife of Louis XIII, she made the wish to realize this church at the birth of her future child, birth which arrived 23 years after its marriage! This first son, Louis XIV, the famous "Sun King", put the first stone of the building at the age of 7.

Merci Peter, have a good marathon! 

The route of the tour:

A long sunny tour with Colin

Colin - Place de l'Alma

8:00 AM - With Colin, we had decided to run a long tour along the Seine. A beautiful morning, the sun was with us. Colin comes from Australia but works in India. Long distances enthusiast, Colin intends to run his first marathon in Bombay, a rather difficult marathon because of the heat and of the humidity

We thus left by following the Seine on the left bank, by greeting for the first time the Eiffel Tower. We then crossed the river by the "Ile de La Cité", admired Notre-Dame and joined the right bank to make a small break in the Louvre.

Colin - Rue de l'Université, Notre Dame, Le Louvre

Having crossed the garden of the Tuileries, arrived in front of the Obelisk of the place de la Concorde, we evoked the time of the Pharaoh Ramses II. With such a light, we owed have small breaks to photograph the Eiffel Tower, and it is by the bridge of Bir-Hakeim that we returned on the left bank.

Colin - Obelisk of "la Concorde", Trocadéro, Bridge of Bir-Hakeim

But, what is this flame place of the Alma, which we can see on the photo at the top of the article?

The plate indicates: " The Flame of Liberty. An exact replica of the Statue of Liberty's flame offered to the people of France by donors throughout the world as a symbol of the Franco-American friendship. On the occasion of the centennial of the International Herald Tribune. Paris 1887-1987. "

In 1989, the United States offered this flame to France, to thank the French companies which realized the restoration of the Statue of Liberty on the occasion of its centenary. As its replica, the Flame in New York, lit at the origin from the inside, is now gilded and lit from the outside.

Numerous visitors think that this flame was built in homage to Lady Diana, died during her accident in the tunnel of the Alma, situated under the monument.
The flame can effectively remind the song of Elton John written in homage to the princess: "Candle in the wind".
Even if Lady Diana is officially commemorated in a small garden in "Le Marais", we can often see around the Flame of the Freedom, numerous bouquets, photos or messages.

The tunnel of the Alma is also the passage of the Paris Marathon (soon, April 15th!). In this place, the race gets closer to the 29th km (18 miles)! Good race to all the runners who will run the Marathon of Paris!

Merci Colin !

The route of the tour: