12th, 14th, 16th, 17th and 19th centuries, a stroll in the History of Paris with Aveen and David

Aveen and David - "Jardin des Plantes" (Garden of the Plants)

8:05 AM - With Aveen and David, confirmed runners from Dublin (Ireland), we explored Paris, by running and stopping in front of various buildings or places which restore the city such as it was in the previous centuries.

Discovering "Le Marais", the Left bank (Latin Quarter et "Saint-Germain des Près"), the Louvre and "Ile de la Cité" is a journey through the time and a way of feeling the History of Paris.

Paris was damaged, bombarded but never totally destroyed as were London (Great fire of 1666) or Lisbon (Earthquake of 1755). In Paris, all the layers of History are represented (since the Roman Lutetia).

Our route thus led us:

• in the 12th century with Notre-Dame,

Aveen and David - Notre-Dame seen from the Bridge of "La Tournelle" (the first stone was put in 1163)

• in the 14th century with the magnificent "Hôtel de Sens",

Aveen and David - "Hôtel de Sens", built in 1345, formerly Hotel of the Archbishops of Sens 
(Paris depending on the archbishopric of Sens until 1622).
On the left part of the building, look (below and to the right of the roof) at the cannonball pulled in July, 1830, always stuck in the wall. The date in July 28th, 1830 is registered under the cannonball.

• in the 16th century with the Carnavalet Museum (formerly "Hôtel de Carnavalet" and "Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau")

David and Aveen - Carnavalet Museum. Look at the magnificent blazon of Paris above the door (1889). 
Carnavalet is the Paris museum (go there and discover the History of Paris through numerous exhibitions).

• and the place Dauphine, also created at the end of the 16th century,

David et Aveen - Place Dauphine.
Notice the buildings with the red bricks. Do not they remind you those that we see "Place des Vosges"? Look at the photo Place Vosges below. These two squares were created at the same time, Royal Places!

Let us admire now four beautiful places appeared in the 17th century:

• The "Jardin du Luxembourg" (Garden of Luxembourg),

David and Aveen - 
The "Jardin du Luxembourg", created in 1612 by Marie de Médicis with the Palace of Luxembourg (now the French Senate).

• The "Jardin des Plantes", initially Royal garden of the Medicinal Plants created in 1626 (see the picture at the beginning of this article),

• The "Place des Vosges",

David and Aveen - "Place des Vosges".
Compare the building with the ones of "place Dauphine" (see the photo above).

• The "Hôtel de Sully".

David and Aveen - The Hotel of Sully, magnificent Mansion in the "Marais", the residence of Duke of Sully, Minister of Finance of Henri IV (among others!).

Our road also passes in the 19th century with the "Place de la Contrescarpe", created in 1852 in the location of a counter-scarp of Philippe Auguste's surrounding wall (12th century).

David and Aveen - "Place de la Contrescarpe" 
In the back, the street Mouffetard which dates of the roman time.

Merci Aveen ! Merci David !


The route of the tour:

On the "new Pont des Arts" with Laura

Laura - Pont des Arts ("Bridge of Arts")

8:03 AM - With Laura, from Chicago, we made a long running tour of Paris, a pleasant sporting stroll on a beautiful sunny morning of March.

Do you recognize the "Pont des Arts" ("Bridge of Arts")? Where are the famous padlocks of love?
Until 2015, we could see the "Pont des Arts" overloaded with "padlocks of love".
You probably know the story: two lovers write their names on a padlock, hang it on a bridge and throw the key in the river, thus sealing their love. 

This tradition would come from Italy, from a movie adapted from a novel "Ho voglia di te", where two lovers place their padlock on a lamppost of the bridge Milvius in Rome. Inspired by the movie, the lovers in Rome decorated in their turn this bridge with their own padlocks.
The fashion quickly spread in Europe and mainly in Paris, ideal romantic city. The "Pont des Arts", attractive pedestrian footbridge, was the main target of these padlocks. Transparent panels recently had to replace these padlocks, too heavy for the bridge.

The story of the "Pont des Arts" padlocks in some images of our blogs:

• The beginning of the love padlocks fashion on the "Pont des Art" (some padlocks) 
• The fast growth of the love padlocks on the "Pont des Arts"
• The replacement, summer 2015, by temporary artistic panels

Then, no more padlock on the "Pont des Arts"? No, some smart ones find solutions:

Having left the Pont des Arts, with Laura, we explored "Saint Germain des Près" and the Latin Quarter, the left bank, then the island of "La Cité" and the right bank, the Louvre, the Palais-Royal and the beginning of the historic axis of Paris. A sport visit for sure but with numerous stops to be able to appreciate magnificent Parisian landscapes: :

The Medicis Fountain at the garden of Luxembourg,

Animal statues in the Jardin des plantes,

The "Pont Neuf" and its beautiful view on the Seine,

The pond in the Garden of the "Palais Royal"

In the Garden of the Palais Royal, we found Michel Goulet's new chairs, inspired by the metallic chairs which we usually meet in the Parisian gardens (to know more about it => here):

We returned at a good pace to take advantage of the pedestrian part of the Seine left bank.

The new pedestrian banks between the "Pont Alexandre III" and the "Pont de la Concorde"

Merci Laura !

The route of the tour:

A new Running Tour in Paris with Cori

Cori - "Jardin des Plantes" (Garden of the Plantes)

8:05 AM - Do you remember Cori? We ran together in April 2012. It rained that time, which had not prevented us from making an attractive run in Paris. 

In this month of April 2015, the weather is beautiful and we can enjoy the sun. Although we pass again by the "Pont des Arts" (Bridge of Arts), we choose a very different route. Compare both views of the "Pont des Arts" in April, 2012 and April, 2015:

Cori - "Pont des Arts" - April 2012 and April 2015

Look at the sides of the "Pont des Arts". We have already spoken a lot about the famous Padlocks of Love. In 2012, they are already present and begin to be many but not still in the point to make bend and fall the railings which carry them.

In 2015, the railings fell and were replaced many times: the padlocks placed on the railings, themselves covered by other padlocks, finished to be too heavy.

Paris decided to act: at first, the padlocks will be replaced in May by panels painted by artists then, in September, by transparent Plexiglas panels. Now, this April, it is temporary wooden panels which line the bridge (graffitis did not delay covering them).

For our new circuit in Paris, we favored parks and gardens. What a pleasure to run under the sun there. We discover:

The "Jardin du Luxembourg" and its magnificent "Fontaine Medicis" (Medici Fountain)

Cori - "La Fontaine Medicis"

"Les Arènes de Lutèce" (Arenas of Lutetia), with soccer players, gladiators having left for quite a long time :)

Cori - "Les Arènes de Lutèce"

"La Grande Serre du Jardin des Plantes" (the Great Greenhouse of the Garden of the Plantes) (go there, a real jungle in Paris!):

Cori - "La grande serre du Jardin des Plantes"

Merci Cori ! 

The route of the tour:

With Laura, meeting Geneviève, Patroness of Paris and model of resistance

Laura - Notre-Dame

3:53 PM - Laura lives in Oklahoma where she is an active member of a group of runners, Runhers, who promotes a healthy and sports life, notably thanks to the running.

Program of this afternoon: a discovery of the Paris Left bank.

The University of "La Sorbonne":

Laura - University of "la Sorbonne" - "Rue Saint-Jacques"
Discover a sight of Sorbonne and its history in this other article

The "rue du Cardinal Lemoine", where we met the house of the Irish writer James Joyce:

Laura - "71 rue du Cardinal Lemoine"
James Joyce wrote his novel "Ulysses" here.
Not far, one of Ernest Hemingway's houses (remember this article)

The beautiful "Place de la Contrescarpe":

Laura - "Place de la Contrescarpe"

The "Jardin des Plantes", from where we can see the huge skeleton of a whale, behind the windows of the Gallery of Paleontology:

Laura - Gallery of Paleontology and Compared Anatomy of the National Natural History Museum

During our run, in the garden of Luxembourg, we crossed Geneviève, the Patroness of Paris:

Laura - "Sainte Geneviève" (see also this article)

Geneviève, daughter of a Frankish father and a Gallo-Roman mother, would have been a municipal member of the council of Paris.
According to the tradition, Geneviève, in the year 451, would have prevented Attila and his Huns from invading Paris by encouraging its inhabitants to the resistance.

Geneviève, model of courage and endurance for Laura who is successively going to run the Chicago marathon then the one of New York this fall.

Go Laura!

The route of the tour:

Two sports tours in Paris with Rosalie

Rosalie - Medici Fountain - Luxembourg garden

9:04 AM - With Rosalie, who comes from the beautiful city of Quebec, we made two visits of Paris by running.

An important mist covered Paris the first day, making buildings and monuments hardly visible:

Rosalie - The dome of the Invalides can slightly be seen

Where are the towers of Notre-Dame, usually visible since the bank?
The Musée d'Orsay getting free of the mist (in the right of the photo)

And there, what is this monument which is in the background of the photo?

Yes!... The Eiffel Tower which we find a little farther, a little less veiled:

On our way, we admired a work of Dubuffet, installed for the occasion of the FIAC :

Rosalie - "Petit Palais" - Welcome Parade, of Jean Dubuffet - 2008

and a little bit further west, the beautiful Galliera palace, the Paris Museum of Fashion:

Rosalie - "Palais Galleria"

For our second run, the sky was a little more clear.
Our first strides led us near to the Pantheon, place "Sainte Geneviève":

Rosalie - "Place du Panthéon" - The Panthéon. On the left, the "Sainte-Geneviève" library and in the background, the Saint-Étienne-du-Mont church.

We went to greet the oldest tree of Paris, a Black Locust tree planted in 1601 by the botanist Jean Robin (the tree is native of North America) :

Rosalie - "Square René Viviani"

After the Museum of Fashion, we went to see  the first shop of the famous shoes creator, Christian Louboutin (notice that the shop occupies the premises of a former printing office):

Rosalie - In front of the Christian Louboutin's first shop, in the Véro Dodat gallery

Back on the Left bank, we ran on the old pavements of the "Cour du Commerce Saint André", next to one of the oldest Cafés in Europe (1682): the Café Procope, just under Benjamin Franklin's eyes who was one of the regular customers of the Café (we say that he would have written a part of the United States Constitution there):

Rosalie - "Cour du Commerce Saint André"

A kind newspaper seller was kind enough to take the last photo of our tour. Funny of to have the view of a newspaper seller inside his kiosk!

Rosalie, Paris Running Tour - Avenue of the Général Leclerc

Merci Rosalie !

The routes of the tours :

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: