A little bit of Paris in one minute – The oldest house in Paris
The inscription in Middle French (French of the late Middle Ages/Renaissance): “Nous homes et femes laboureurs demourans ou porche de ceste maison qui fu fte en lan de grace mil quatre cens et sept, somes tenus chacun en droit soy dire tous les jours une patrenostre et 1 ave maria en priant dieu que sa grace face pardon aux povres pescheurs trespassez. amen.” “We, men and women, workers living in the porches of this house that was made in the year of grace one thousand four hundred and seven are, each of us, required by law to say every day one Our Father and one Hail Mary while praying to God that his grace brings forgiveness to the poor deceased sinners, amen.” If you too, you come to Paris, we will be very happy to run with you. Join us and discover Paris with authentic Parisians guides who will take you on the best sight running routes in Paris and who always have tons of secrets to share with you:
Tailored-made private guided tours since 2008
If you too, you come to Paris, we will be very happy to run with you. Join us and discover Paris with authentic Parisians guides who will take you on the best sight running routes in Paris and who always have tons of secrets to share with you:
Come and discover the Parisian Street Art with us
At Paris Running Tours, we love all aspects of Paris and there are many, History, Art, Culture, new trends, street furniture, new events, etc. We like to share all this with our visitors. One of the things we like to introduce you to is the Street Art (or “Street-Art”) that flourishes everywhere in Paris. New works of art regularly appear in the different districts of Paris, as above, with this recent work by Seth in this old district of Paris, Seth who often paints children as here. Thank you to our runners from Switzerland, on this Sunday, October 7, 2018, Christine, Morgane, Marie-Eve and Nathalie! Thank you Christine for introducing us to “the whole team”. We were very happy to meet you again for a tour. Here are some other examples of Parisian “Street Art”: You will certainly remember that for a certain period of time (~2008-2015), the “Pont des Arts” had become the “Love locks bridge”. Find the changes of the Bridge in this article, old article now. Before moving definitively to transparent panels to replace the grids, Paris allowed street artists to cover the bridge with artistic works. We like the one in the following photo which represents the Paris Coat of Arms in an original way: Next Sunday, October 14, 2018, it will be the race of the 20 km de Paris. The theme of this year’s race: “Street Art”! If you too, you come to Paris, we will be very happy to run with you. Join us and discover Paris with authentic Parisians guides who will take you on the best running routes in Paris and who always have tons of secrets to share with you:
Memories of 2017, very good moments with our visitors (2/3)
Here is the second article of the end of this year serie, which reviews some of the Parisian visits made with our sports visitors. It was a great pleasure to run with Carla, Ashley and Jen from San Francisco, end of September. A good distance allowed us to discover all the diversity of Paris. The following pictures show some aspects of this variety. If you too, you come to Paris, we will be very happy to run with you. Join us and discover Paris with authentic Parisians guides who always have tons of secrets to share with you. Enjoy an original private tour, tailor-made for you:
Paris, an old museum? No! Let us discover the Parisian Modern Art with Valerie
Valerie – Garden of the “Palais Royal” (Royal Palace) 6:52 AM – Valerie, fast runner from Texas, chose Paris Running Tour to discover various aspects of Paris. We sometimes say that Paris looks like a museum, a magnificent museum where everything is unchanging and everything remain still… By following our sports route, we certainly saw numerous magnificent monuments and historic buildings which we wish eternal but also various places which present a new Paris in sync with the modern art. As the Eiffel Tower at the time of its construction, too modern for some, these new creations were often the object of controversies. Next to the classic but magnificent garden of the “Palais Royal”, is a work of art which did not please everybody during its creation. Look at this strange view from the sky: It is the work of the artist Daniel Buren, “Les deux plateaux” created in 1986, usually called the Columns of Buren: Valerie – The “Colonnes de Buren”, in the heart of the “Palais Royal” Every column seems to grow, pushed by a unique root (visible under the railing). An attractive courtyard surrounded by the more classic columns of the “Palais Royal”… Just a step from the columns of Buren, at the exit of the Royal Palace, is another contemporary creation, the “Kiosque des Noctambules” (Kiosk of Night birds), created by Jean-Michel Othoniel in 2000: Valerie – The “Kiosque des Noctambules” This work of art is a metro entrance of the station “Palais Royal”. If you go to the “Palais Royal”, compare it with the other exit of the same subway station, situated 100 meters from there, in front of the Louvre, in style “Art nouveau”, created in the 1900s, modernity of that time… Another surprising view from the sky. What is this work? The Fountain Stravinsky of Nikki de saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely (1983), tribute to the composer Stravinsky. Another beautiful example of contrast between modernity and classicism (look also at the old Church Saint Merri, probably modern at its time): Valerie – The “Fontaine Stravinsky” also called “Fontaine des Automates” (Usually, the automatons turn on themselves and throw water) Ongoing controversy: the “Tour Triangle”! A very nice, sports and cultural running! Merci Valerie ! 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:
In front of the oldest tree of Paris with Michael
Michael – Garden René Viviani, in the background the church “Saint-Julien le Pauvre” 9:01 AM – Michael, who lives in Hamburg (Germany), began his first visit of the capital by a Paris Running Tour. Having left the district of the “Gare de Lyon”, we traveled the garden of Plants, crossed the Latin Quarter on the left bank, visited the Island of “La Cité”, then of return on the right bank, saw the Pompidou Center and the “Marais” quarter. We discovered in particular the Gallo-Roman Paris by admiring the Arenas of Lutecia, the Roman Thermal baths and the archaeological crypt where we can see real Roman streets. Before leaving the Latin Quarter, in the Public garden René Viviani, we greeted the oldest tree of Paris (we can see it on the photo above). This Black Locust tree (Robinia pseudoacacia) was planted in 1601 by the botanist Jean Robin who introduced it in France (the tree is native of North America). The public garden René Viviani faces the Cathedral Notre-Dame-de-Paris as we can see on the photo below: Michael – “Square René Viviani” and Notre-Dame de Paris A little earlier, it is another place of worship we crossed, the Big Mosque of Paris: The “Grande Mosquée” of Paris The Big Mosque of Paris was inaugurated in 1926. Of Spanish-Moresque style, it possesses a 33 meter minaret. The Mosque is opened to the tourist visits. On the right bank, very close to another “temple”, “temple” of the culture this time, the Georges Pompidou Contemporary Arts Center, we contemplated beautiful mural paintings, of which the stencil “Chuuuttt!!!” of Jef Aérosol: Michael – “Chuuuttt !!!” from Jef Aérosol (2011) In the “Marais”, we took a shortcut which made us, directly from the street Saint Antoine pass on the beautiful “Place des Vosges”: Michael – “Hôtel de Sully” A magnificent shortcut, the Hotel of Sully! This “Hôtel particulier” (mansion) allows to join the “place des Vosges” by way of the inside courtyard and the garden. Built at the beginning of the 17th century, it was the property of the “Duke de Sully”, king Henri IV’s Minister of Finance. It shelters now the Center of the National Monuments. Merci Michael ! The route of the tour :
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: