A sports and cultural tour of Paris with Ingrid at Christmas

Ingrid - Gallery Vivienne

8:32 AM - Ingrid lives in Uberaba, Brazil. To begin her stay in Paris, Ingrid chose to make a Paris Running Tour. On Sunday morning, two days before Christmas, Paris is quite decorated for the holidays. As we can see above, the beautiful Gallery Vivienne (1823) also respects the tradition.

Our run, in this very quiet Paris of a Sunday morning before Christmas, allowed us to see a highly varied Paris: passages (Gallery Vivienne, passage of the "Grand Cerf", passage of Bourg-L'abbé), the Paris of Napoleon the 1st with the Arc of the Carousel, the modern Paris with the Pompidou Center or the very old Paris with Nicolas Flamel's house.

Ingrid - House of Nicolas Flamel

Nicolas Flamel's house, which dates 1407, is the oldest of Paris (older than those of the street François Miron). Nicolas Flamel was a rich "Bourgeois" who, with his wife Pernelle, made build houses to welcome the poor people. This one, street of Montmorency, is the last existing one. An inscription indicates the prayers that the inhabitants of the place had to make : "We, ploughmen and women living at the porch of this house, which was made in 1407, are requested to say every day an 'Our Father' and an 'Ave Maria' praying God that His grace forgive poor and dead sinners Amen".
It is at present an inn.

Some strides farther, it is the modern Paris which we discover.

Ingrid - Centre Pompidou - "The Zinedine Zidane's headbutt" Piece of Adel Abdessemed

Effectively, we find the Pompidou Center, one of the biggest world Contemporary Arts Centers. It welcomes at present a temporary exhibition of the artist Adel Abdessemed. We can see on the square a (provocative?) sculpture representing the headbutt given by the famous football player Zinedine Zidane to an opponent having a little moved words...

Ingrid - Arc du Carrousel

We have already spoken about the Arc of the Carrousel during a tour with Kristy. 
Had you noticed the quadriga at the top of the Arc? 
In fact, the sculpture is a copy.
Napoleon 1st had taken the original statue to the Venetians who themselves had stolen it during the sack of Constantinople in 1204 (The quadriga were ordered by Emperor Constantin in 330).
With Napoleon's fall, the original horses were returned to Venice where you can admire them place Saint Marc. 

To finish, here is a small postcard with other beautiful places seen during our visit:

Merry christmas to all!
Merci Ingrid !

The route of the tour:

Center of Paris, right bank with Liz and Curt

Curt and Liz - The "Bourse de Paris"

9:12 AM - Curt and Liz are regular runners who live near Boston (USA). We left the Opera to make a big visit, more than 10 miles (16 km) to discover Paris center, on the Right bank side (a good training for the half marathon Curt prepares).

Not far from the Opera, we found the "Bourse de Paris". Ordered by Napoleon the 1st and created by Alexandre Théodore Brongniart, the building called Palais Brongniart (Brongniart Palace), served for a long time as stock exchange, the Paris Stock Exchange, before the transactions were dematerialized since the 1980s.
Remember:

Now everything is computerized!
The "Bourse de Paris" serves now as a conference, receptions, fashion shows, showroom or exhibitions center.

Later, we crossed "Le Marais" quarter (Marais=swamp), very quiet on this Sunday morning. No cars! The street belongs to the runners!

Curt and Liz - The Marais

Sunday morning, ideal moment to run in Paris! How many discoveries by running, the old Paris, the modern Paris, the fashion shops, the museums, the passages...

The Marais, the "Passage des Panoramas", The "Pont des Arts", The Pyramide of the Louvre
The first shop of a very fashionable shoes manufacturer, The Louvre, The river Seine

On our way, a couple of tourists asked Liz to photograph them. It fell well, Liz is, among others, a professional photographer!

Liz - Louvre and the Arc of the Carousel

Merci Liz ! Merci Curt !

The route of the tour :

Place des Vosges with Anne and Niels

Anne et Niels - Place des Vosges

8:08 AM - It was a great pleasure to meet Anne and Niels from Denmark again. We had run together during a rather cold March, two tours in Paris, for the greater part on the left bank.

This time, in this warm day of August, we chose the right bank and followed the plan of the ancient Paris surrounding wall of King Louis XIII, path which constitutes largely what we name "Les Grand boulevards".

To join the Grand boulevards, we went through some of the numerous covered passages of Paris, in particular the "passage des Panoramas":

Anne and Niels - Passage des Panoramas

Deserted passage on a Sunday morning and thus usable by the runners!
The passage of the Panoramas is one of oldest covered passages of Paris, created in 1799 and doubtless inspired by the oriental souks... The name "panoramas" comes because the main entry was framed by two towers where were exposed panoramic landscapes representing big cities, panoramas.


On the Grand boulevards, we admired two big triumphal arches commissioned by king Louis XIV: the "Porte Saint-Martin" (1674) and the "Porte Saint-Denis" (1672).
Both arcs were built to the glory of Louis XIV and of his victories and replaced the fortified doors become useless, Charles V's wall being replaced by the Boulevard.

Anne et Niels - Porte Saint Denis

We then left the Boulevard to find the "Place des Vosges":

Anne et Niels - Place des Vosges

Look closer at the Louis XIII's statue. To replace the former bronze statue, melted during the Revolution, the sculptors chose the marble, indeed much heavier...
The statue threatening to collapse in its center, it was decided to place a trunk under the horse's belly. It gives a very strange look to this equipage, slowed down in its center by a tree trunk!

Merci Anne et Niels !

The route of the tour :

By way of the gallery Véro-Dodat with Erin and Jaymi

Erin and Jaymi - The Fountain of the Four Parts of the World

8:55 AM - With Erin from Miami (USA) and Jaymi from San Francisco (USA), we left the "Porte d'Orléans" at the south end of Paris to run toward the center of the city, cross the Louvre, then return by a parallel route.

Do you know the garden of the Great Explorers, the small long and narrow park, situated very close by the garden of the Luxembourg?

In its entrance, south side, we met the Fountain of the Four Parts of the World, as we can see it on the photo above, behind the pond. This bronze fountain, realized by several artists from 1867 till 1874, symbolizes the four Continents, Africa, America, Asia and Europe (Oceania not being represented).
We also name this fountain the Fountain Carpeaux, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux having sculptured the women who represent the continents.
We are in the axis of the meridian of Paris. In the background of the photo, we recognize the Paris Observatory, created in 1667.

By running northward, in the Latin Quarter, we crossed the Hotel of Abbots de Cluny, where resides, nowadays, the Museum of the Middle Ages:

Erin and Jaymi - Hotel of Cluny

It is at the Museum of the Middle Ages that we can admire the magnificent Tapestries of the Lady and the Unicorn .

Of return southward, we entered the beautiful gallery Véro-Dodat, a passage created in 1826. For the amateurs of fashion, it is at the end of the gallery that one of the most famous mode shoemakers created his first shop. Shoes with very high heel, incompatible with the running...

Jaymi and Erin - Galerie Véro-Dodat

We went to finish our running by way of the beautiful Montsouris Park, of which the construction was decided by the baron Haussmann in 1860 to match in the South the Park of the Buttes Chaumont, the other big garden in the North of Paris.

Erin and Jaymi - Montsouris Park

Merci Erin ! Merci Jaymi !

The route of the tour:

At the top of Paris with Bart after a sports ascent

Bart - At the top of "La butte Montmartre"

7:27 AM - With Bart of Delft (Netherlands), we left the heights of the North of Paris to join the edges of the Seine. The departure was thus easy thanks to the long descent of the street of Amsterdam. Having joined the Opera, then the place Vendôme and after, the Champs Elysées, we took the left bank to follow the Seine. Returned by the "Pont des Arts" on the right bank, we ran northward to undertake our ascent towards Montmartre and reach our goal at the feet of the "Sacré-Coeur" church.

On our way back, we crossed galleries of the center of Paris, galleries which we also call the passages (Web page in French).
Below, on our route, the passage Verdeau:

Bart - Passage Verdeau

Merci Bart !

The route of the tour :

A nice long tour with Brenda and Kevin

On the "Pont des Arts"

8:15 AM - A very long and nice tour with Brenda and Kevin. Let them speak:

Here's our testimonial for your blog:

We visited Paris in August 2010, and it was our first time there.  We were training for the New York City marathon and wanted to combine a training run with a running tour around the sights of Paris.  We contacted Paris Running Tours and they arranged for Jean-Charles Sarfati to take us on a 23 km running tour of Paris.  Jean-Charles came to our hotel, where we started our run.  He had organized a customized tour/run, whereby he included all the major sights around the centre of Paris.  It was fantastic!  He told us historical facts about the places we saw and was more than patient to stop, explain and take pictures anywhere we wanted.

We saw Place des Vosges, Bastille, Pont d'Austerlitz, Jardin des Plantes, Arenas de Lutece, Pantheon, Jardin de Luxembourg, Senate, Saint-Sulpice, Saint-Germain, Louvre, Tuileries, National Assembly, Invalide, Champs de Mars, Eiffel Tower, Trocadero, Canadian Embassy, Grand Palais, Concorde, Madeleine, Place Vendome, Opera, Palais Royale, Colbert and Vivienne Galleries, Les Halles, Notre Dame, Hotel De Ville, Pompidou Centre, and Archives.

Inside "La Galerie Colbert" (The guard at the entrance said: "Walking only" !)

It was the best experience during our time in Paris, and Jean-Charles made it extra-special!  We have definitely recommended it to all our friends.  Thank you, Paris Running Tours.

Brenda and Kevin W.

Calgary, Alberta CANADA

 Thank you Brenda and Kevin!

The route of the tour:

You can display Kevin and Brenda's tour on a bigger map