Meeting the American writers in Paris with Mary, Susan and Sonia

Mary, Susan, Sonia - "Esplanade des Invalides"

Thursday 26 June - 7:00 AM, Saturday 28 June - 7:33 AM - Mary, Susan and Sonia from Denver (USA) chose to discover Paris while running with Paris Running Tour.

We ran two mornings mainly on the left bank of the Seine.
Left bank! Bank of Paris particularly appreciated by intellectuals and artists, especially in the 1920s, 30 and 50 ...
Many American writers have lived and wrote there (remember the Woody Allen film "Midnigth in Paris" where the hero played by Owen Wilson returns to the past to find Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and many others). 

Many places still bear witness to their presence, as this plate reveals that Edith Wharton lived in this building of the rue de Varenne:

Susan, Mary and Sonia - "53 rue de Varenne"

Edith Wharton was the first writer from the United States to come to live in France as indicated. "My years of Paris life were spent entirely in the rue de Varenne - rich years, crowded and happy years" as she wrote.

A little further, continuing our run street of Varenne, it is a French artist that we will meet this time, Auguste Rodin:

Susan, Mary, Sonia - Rodin Museum (garden and building)

From the street, behind glasses, we found the statue of the Burghers of Calais in the garden of the Rodin Museum. Find the history of "Les Bourgeois de Calais" in this article.

Continue our route around the Invalides...

Susan, Sonia, Mary - "Hôtel des Invalides" and Eiffel tower in the backgroung

...to reach the right bank and enjoy a beautiful view of the "Musée d'Orsay" and the "Hôtel de Salm", the "Palais de la Légion d'Honneur":

Susan, Mary and Sonia - Orsay Museum and Palace of the Legion of Honor

On Saturday, after a run at the foot of the Seine bridges:

Susan and Mary - "Petit Pont" and further, the "Pont Saint-Michel" (Pont=Bridge)

... we went to see one of the places where Ernest Hemingway lived in Paris:

Susan and Mary - "74 rue du Cardinal Lemoine"

Read what he wrote in his book "A Moveable Feast":
... "this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy."
A green door for Edith Wharton and a blue door for Ernest Hemingway... ; )
Just around the corner is the pretty little "Place de la Contrescarpe" Hemingway loved:

Susan and Mary - "Place de la Contrescarpe"

On the way back, we stopped in front of the marble standard meter of the "rue de Vaugirard":

Mary and Susan - Street of Vaugirard

Merci Mary ! Merci Susan ! Merci Sonia !

The routes of the tours:

Discovery of the symbols of Paris with Emily

Emily - Alexandre III bridge

9:03 AM - With Emily, from Ohio (USA), our sports route crossed the seventh and eighth districts of Paris, known in particular for the big works and monuments we can find there. It is here that we shall meet the constructions which stayed after the 19th and 20th centuries World Fairs: the Eiffel Tower, the Palace of Chaillot, the Palace of Iena, the Palace of Tokyo, "Petit" and "Grand Palais" and of course, the Alexandre III Bridge.

Had you noticed that on the Alexandre III Bridge are the symbols of France and Paris?

Alexandre III bridge - France and Paris Symbols

On the basis of most of the candelabras surrounding the bridge, you will find various representations of the symbols of France and Paris:

• On the left photo above, you can read "RF", which means French Republic. All the public buildings in France show these letters RF. A little farther, for example, on the left bank, at the east of the bridge, you will find these letters on the blazons of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
• In the middle, the Gallic cockerel ("Coq Gaulois") which is the national symbol of France, even if it is not as formalized as the bald eagle, national bird of the United States..
• Finally, on the right photo, you will find the blazon of Paris, the ship of the powerful Gallic corporation of the Nautes. The motto of Paris is bound to this blazon: "Fluctuat nec mergitur", Latin expression which means "It floats but does not sink". You can see this blazon on most of the public buildings of Paris. Moreover, we find it in big on the bridge again:

Alexandre III bridge - West side

We thus left the area of the Champ de Mars to go around the Invalides :

Emily - "Hôtel des Invalides" - South side

Emily - "Hôtel des Invalides" - North side

Meanwhile, we were able to admire, since the street, the Rodin museum and its beautiful garden:

Emily - Rodin museum : the garden, the museum and the The Burghers of Calais statue

To go on the right bank, we crossed the footbridge Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, with, by leaving the bridge, a beautiful point of view on the "Musée d'Orsay":

Emily - Orsay museum

By going back up the Champs-Elysées, we made a small detour to find again our symbols, the Gallic Cock and the letters RF:

Elysée palace - "Grille du Coq" (Railing of the Gallic cockerel)

If there is a place where we have to see these symbols, it is the Elysée Palace ("Palais de l'Elysée"), the residence of the President of the French Republic (equivalent to the White House for the USA), here on the Railing of the Cock which is in the South of the Palace garden.

By crossing the "Petit Palais", very Parisian monument, it is, this time, the Ship that we found again:

Emily - "Petit Palais" - Blazon of the Nautes

By entering the "Petit Palais", by raising the head towards the ceiling, we find once more the blazon, where we can even read it the motto " Fluctuat nec mergitur ":

Ceiling of the entrance of the "Petit Palais"

By leaving the "Petit Palais", here is again the Alexandre III Bridge and in the background the "Hôtel des Invalides" (in fact, the bridge was created to connect the Champs-Elysées to the "Invalides"):

Emily - Alexandre III bridge (right bank side) and left bank, in the background, the Invalides

By the way, do you know what represents this other symbol, a double-headed eagle, that we can also see at the bottom of the Alexandre III bridge lampposts? ; )

Merci Emily !

The route of the tour:

A big Running Tour of 18 miles (29 km) with Alina, one thousand discoveries in Paris!

Alina - Running in the "Jardin des Plantes" (Garden of the Plants)

9:05 AM - Alina, from New York, in the midst of preparations for a marathon, wished to visit Paris but fully respecting her training plan. 
This day, a long run was planned: we ran 18 miles (29 kilometers)... Ideal to see Paris!

Paris is vast and rich in interesting places.
What do we see in Paris by running on a long distance?

Water: the Ourcq Canal, the Saint Martin Canal, the "Bassin de l'Arsenal", the river Seine...

The river Seine

squares: the "Place de la République", the "Place des Vosges", the "Place de la Bastille", the "Place de la Contrescarpe", the "Place de l'Alma", the "Place de la Concorde", ...

"Place de la Concorde"

museums: the National Museum of Natural History, the Army Museum (Invalides), the Rodin Museum, the Guimet Museum, the Galleria Palace, the Palace of Tokyo, the Museum of Modern Art, the "Petit" and "Grand Palais", the "Jeu de Paume", the "Orangerie", the Louvre, the Grévin Museum, the Orsay Museum...

bridges: the Bridge of Austerlitz, the Bridge of Carrousel, the Royal Bridge, the Bridge of "la Concorde", the Alexandre III Bridge, the Bir Hakeim Bridge, the Bridge of "l'Alma", the Bridge of Arts...

the "Pont des Arts" (in the background, the Museum of the Louvre)

famous boulevards and avenues, numerous statues, splendid monuments, secular churches, beautiful covered passages...

parks and gardens: the "Buttes Chaumont", the garden of Luxembourg, the "Champ de Mars", the gardens of the Trocadéro, the "cours de La Reine", the garden of the Tuileries, the garden of the Plants where we greeted some animals:

Alina and the Stegosaurus of the garden of the Plants

Alina and the Mammoth of the garden of the Plants

and of course the "Tour Eiffel"!

Paris is beautiful and has so many amazing aspects!

Merci Alina !

The route of the big 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 :

A magnificent dawn in Paris with Marnie

Marnie - "Pont Louis-Philippe", on the left, "Ile St-Louis", in the background, "Ile de La Cité" and Notre-Dame

5:52 AM - Marnie lives in Singapore. After having run several half marathons, Marnie prepares a marathon she will run this autumn. How to prepare a marathon while visiting Paris? A long tour with Paris Running Tour! Ideal to discover the city while doing our training.
We thus traveled on a circuit of more than 18 km kilometers, with an amazing Parisian landscape parading under our eyes.

We discovered a totally deserted Paris, embellished by the magnificent light of the rising sun.

Deserted Paris? A start before 6 am + on Sunday + August! 
The Parisians went on holiday, tourists still sleeping, well parked cars. Paris only for us!

Look on how the "Place de la Concorde" is deserted and beautiful in all the splendor of this summer morning:

Marnie - "Place de la Concorde"

Nobody in front of the "Palais de Justice" either... The Sainte Chapelle and Conciergerie, which surround it, are still in the quiet before the arrival of the visitors during the day.

Marnie - The "Palais de Justice" of Paris, on the left, the "Sainte Chapelle", on the right, the "Conciergerie"

We ran along the river Seine which we crossed several times to benefit from beautiful points of view on Paris:

Marnie - "Pont Neuf", in the background, the "pont des Arts"

Marnie - Footbridge Senghor, on the left, the Louvre, on the right the "Musée d'Orsay", in the background, Notre Dame

On the new banks of Paris, we made a little sprint to test the new new athletic track of one hundred meters:

Marnie - New banks of Paris, athletic track of 100 meters

Souvenir photo on the Esplanade of the Trocadéro, the best point of view to see the Eiffel Tower:

Paris Running Tour - Marnie - The Eiffel tower - On the left, the dome of the Invalides

Merci Marnie !

The route of the tour: