"Place des Victoires" with Kristine

Kristine - Garden of the "Palais Royal"

10:05 AM - Kristine comes from New York. Very sports, she chose to take advantage of her stay in Paris to do a Running Tour and so combine sport and discovery of Paris.
We left Grand boulevards to join the Eiffel Tower.

At first, we ran in more intimate places as the garden of the Palais Royal (above) or the magnificent Parisian covered passages:

We often spoke about them in this blog but it is always a great pleasure to discover these passages again.

The second part of the route led us towards less "confidential" but great amazing places, as the banks of the Seine...

Kristine - Banks of the River Seine (right bank, at the level of the "Jardin des Tuileries")

... or of course, the Eiffel tower:

Kristine - Eiffel tower since the Avenue of the President Wilson

Along the way, we crossed the magnificent "Place des Victoires" with the Statue of king Louis XIV, the Sun King.

Kristine - Place des Victoires

This square, created in 1685, was named "Place des Victoires" in honor of the military victories of Louis XIV. Do you know that the place saw successively four different monuments:

• from 1686 till 1792, a standing statue of Louis XIV
• from 1792 till 1810, a wooden pyramid
• from 1810 till 1828, a statue of General Desaix
• and since 1828, the current statue, an equestrian statue of Louis XIV.

The first statue was melted in 1792 to make canons during the revolution. It represented King Louis XIV standing...

... on a base representing four overcome nations (Spain, the Empire, Brandenburg and Holland):

This base is visible in the Puget courtyard in the Louvre.
We can even see it without entering the Louvre since the passage which connects the street of Rivoli with the Louvre Pyramid (remember the photo 12 in this article: here).

Merci Kristine ! 

The route of the tour:

Around the Louvre with Janaina and Gustavo

Gustavo and Janaina - The Island of the "Cité" seen from the "Quai du Louvre"

7:13 AM - Gustavo and Janaina live in Salvador (Brazil). To visit Paris by running, we chose a beautiful stroll around the Louvre.

We left the Grands Boulevards and went through the "passage des Panoramas" (see the previous post), the "Palais Royal", and then we joined the Louvre, by crossing the Street of Rivoli:

Janaina and Gustavo - The Louvre, entrance to the "passage Richelieu"

The Passage Richelieu connects the street of Rivoli with the Louvre Pyramid and allows to see the beautiful sculptures of the Puget and Marly courtyards (remember the article which speaks about the horses of Marly) :

Gustavo and Janaina - The Louvre, Puget courtyard

After this small break in front of the passage Richelieu windows, we continued our running at the foot of the Pyramid, the magnificent glass pyramid which respects the central space of the Louvre and allows to see the Louvre in its totality:

Gustavo and Janaina - The Louvre and the Pyramid

What was there before the Pyramid? A stand of trees where cars could park. At the foot of the trees, impossible to see all the facades:

The Louvre before 1983

In the same direction, towards the garden of the Tuileries, we had a photo break to take advantage of the view on the Eiffel Tower, the "Musée d'Orsay" and also some statues of Maillol. Look for them in the bushes by enlarging the photo:

Gustavo and Janaina - The Louvre ("Pavillon de Flore"), "Musée d'Orsay", Eiffel tower and Tuileries

We then left the garden of the Tuileries by way of the small tunnel which goes out of the garden by going towards the river Seine. We crossed the Seine by the footbridge Léopold Sédar Senghor and going up the staircases of the bridge, where we enjoyed a beautiful point of view on Notre-Dame:

Gustavo and Janaina - Léopold Sédar Senghor footbridge

On the other side of the bridge, we saw the beautiful Palace of the Legion of Honor, cleaned recently (we had spoken about its replica in San Francisco here):

Janaina and Gustavo - "Palais de la Légion d'Honneur"

Evoking the various places to run, we spoke about the immense and long beautiful beaches of Brazil. In Paris, we also have the opportunity to have some beaches ;) 
At least from mid-July to mid-August, the banks of the "Right bank", in particular, welcome the operation "Paris-Plages":

Gustavo and Janaina - On the "Pont Neuf". Behind, the beautiful "Paris-Plages"sand before the opening

A little farther, near the Louvre, is the Louvre Oratory, with the Statue of the "Amiral de Coligny", whose tragic end reminds us sad moments of the French History:

Gustavo and Janaina - "Oratoire du Louvre"

On our road, we passed by the beautiful "Véro Dodat" gallery and we were amazed by the height of a famous Parisian shoemaker's shoes (see below, near the passage, the Christian Louboutin's first shop):

Gustavo and Janaina - "Galerie Véro Dodat" and a shop of eccentric shoes

 Merci Janaina, merci Gustavo !

The route of the tour:

Running in the Parisian Passages with Michelle and Susan

Susan and Michelle - The river Seine near the Tuileries garden, in front of the Orsay Museum

9:03 AM - Susan and Michelle are two New-York road-runners (NY - USA). Michelle prepares at present the Marathon of Chicago. After a first visit of Paris last year, their choice was for a little bit different route.

We started near the Seine on the left bank. Look on the photo above, the new "emmarchement" in front of the Orsay Museum, "emmarchement" which is a part of the new banks of the Seine (very much enjoyed by runners).

Having crossed the pedestrian footbridge Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, run in the Garden of the Tuileries and admired the place Vendôme, we were able to cross our first covered passage, the long passage Choiseul:

Michelle, Susan - Passage Choiseul

Not far from there, it is with pleasure that we met the beautiful "salle Favart", National Theater of the "Opéra Comique" :

Michelle and Susan - Opéra Comique

It is the third "Salle Favart" built in 1898, both previous ones having burned.

Second covered passage on our route, the Passage of the Panoramas, the oldest passage of Paris (we had already spoken about it here) :

Susan, Michelle - "Passage des Panoramas"

Just in front of the "Passage des Panoramas" is the Passage Jouffroy where a curious medieval character welcomes you:

Susan and Michelle with a character of the Grévin Museum

It is about one of the numerous wax characters of the Grévin Museum, the Parisian counterpart of Madam Tussauds of London. The entrance of the museum is situated in the Grand boulevards and the exit in the Passage Jouffroy.

A little later, we found an old acquaintance, the Statue of Liberty (well, a Parisian younger sister...):

Susan, Michelle - The Statue of Liberty in the museum of "Arts et Métiers"

To know more about the Parisian statues of Liberty, click here.

We continued our road and again crossed magnificent passages:

"Passage du Grand Cerf"

"Galerie Vero-Dodat"

"Galerie Vivienne"

These Parisian passages were approximately 150 in the middle of the 19th century, there are less than thirty nowadays. Our running allowed us to cross nine of them, among the most beautiful:

We ended the tour by crossing the beautiful garden of the "Palais Royal", isolated from the Parisian street by its long galleries of arcades,

Michelle, Susan - Garden of the "Palais Royal"

participated in the work of art constituted by the Columns of Buren ("Les deux plateaux" of the Artist Daniel Buren),

On the columns of Buren in the "Palais Royal"

and made a small break in front of the Louvre before crossing again the Seine to join the Left bank.

Susan and Michelle - The Louvre museum

Look on the Louvre Pyramid the sign of the Third Paradise, bound to The temporary exhibition of Michelangelo Pistoletto.

Merci Susan, merci Michelle !

The route of the tour :

Snapshots of a first visit in Paris, with Melinda

Melinda - On the bridge of Austerlitz. In the distance, Notre-Dame and Saint Louis Island beautiful houses

Monday 27th May - 12:51 PM, Wednesday 29th May - 6:57 PM - First time in Paris for Melinda from Miami (USA) ! 
What better choice than to start a first stay in Paris doing a visit by running (with Paris Running Tour)? A good way of unwinding legs after a long travel by plane and a first discovery of Paris getting directly into the life of the city.

And why not begin again two days later to discover new paths through Paris?
We thus ran by following two routes which mainly crossed the disctrict of "Le Marais", the Left bank, the island of "La Cité" and the center of Paris around the Seine.

Here is the route (numbers indicate where the photos of this article were taken):

We took numerous photos during our running:

1) "La rue des Barres" (Street of Bars). This name comes because formerly, in the 10th century, on the location of the street, a wall, a fence of wooden bars, constituted a wall protecting Paris:

Melinda - "Rue des Barres"

2) "L'Hôtel de Sully" (The Hotel of Sully). The Duke of Sully, Minister of Finance of king Henri IV, lived in this noble mansion at the end of his life. By crossing the Hotel of Sully, we passed directly from the street Saint Antoine to the "place des Vosges".

Melinda - "Hôtel de Sully"

3) The "bassin de l'Arsenal". Having crossed the place of the Bastille, we met the Basin of the Arsenal, port and canal connecting the river Seine with the Saint Martin canal and which, formerly, was a ditch which filled the moats of the castle of the Bastille.

Melinda - "Port de l'Arsenal"

4) "Pont d'Austerlitz" (Bridge of Austerlitz). See the picture at the beginning of the article.

5) "Cour du Commerce Saint André". Another place which is situated on the plan of the former surrounding wall of Paris, the wall of king Philippe Auguste. This passage, opened in 1776, allows to reach the Café Procope (1686), one of the oldest cafés in the world.

Melinda - "Cour du Commerce Saint André"

Second tour :

6) "Le Tribunal de Commerce de Paris" (Commercial court). This building presents the peculiarity to have a dome placed not in the center, but on the side, in a way that the dome is visible from the Boulevard Sevastopol. The dome closes the perspective of the Boulevard by the South.

Melinda - On the bridge Notre Dame. We can see, on the island of "La Cité", successively,
the Hôtel-Dieu (Hospital), the "Tribunal du Commerce de Paris" and the Conciergerie.

7) On the "Pont Neuf" ("New" Bridge). 

Melinda - Pont Neuf. On left, the "Institut de France", the Eiffel tower and, on right,the "Musée d'Orsay"

8) Colonnade of the Louvre. Summit of the French classicism, the Colonnade of the Louvre was realized at the request of king Louis XIV. The Colonnade of the Louvre served as model to numerous famous buildings, in particular, the Capitol of the United States in Washington, Metropolitan Museum of art in New York and San Francisco War Memorial Opera House.

Melinda - The "Colonnade du Louvre"

9) Alexandre III bridge. The widest bridge in Paris. Built with the "Grand" and "Petit Palais" for the World Fair of 1900. The bridge offers a direct link between the "Invalides" and the Champs-Elysées.

Melinda - the Alexandre III bridge - In the distance, the "Invalides"

10) The Champs Elysées.

Melinda - Champs Elysées, at the end, the "Arc de Triomphe" and far off, the "Grande Arche" of "la Défense"

11) The equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, place of the Pyramids. She is situated not far from the Gate Saint Honoré, where Joan of Arc tried to cross Charles V's surrounding wall to reconquer Paris, occupied at the time by the English. She was hurt by an arrow in the thigh there.

Melinda - Equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, of Frémiet and inaugurated in 1874

12) The Puget courtyard in the Louvre.

Melinda - Puget Courtyard, situated with the Marly Courtyard on both sides of the passage
which connects the Louvre Pyramid to the street of Rivoli

13) Stravinsky fountain. This fountain, fountain Stravinsky or fountain of automatons, was created by the couple of artist Nikki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely in 1983 and evokes the work of the composer Stravinsky.

Melinda - the "Fontaine Stravinsky", on the right George Pompidou Center

Interesting and beautiful discoveries, isn't it?
Merci Melinda !

The route of the tours: