Valentine runs in Paris!
We have drawn a little Valentine in love ❤️ who declares his flame with a little flower from the Monceau park… 24 km in spite of a strong cold (-11°C/12.2°F felt), with beautiful descents alternating, of course, with rough climbs… Bravo to the brave who took over the street… “La rue est à nous !” “The street is ours !” Thank you very much Alice, Angélina, Mahdi, Patricia and Pierre ! —- Paris Running Tours: private tours or free outings, stay tuned! See you soon for new themed outings, we are full of ideas to show you around Paris 😀 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:
Follow this running Lady in Paris!
For the Global Running Day, we followed a running Lady in Paris! If you too you want to book a special “GPS Drawing” tour, ask us, we will study all your ideas, surprise, text, drawing and propose an original tour in Paris => https://www.parisrunningtour.com/book-now/#request
Memories of 2017, very good moments with our visitors (3/3)
This last article in the serie reminds us some of the tours done end of 2017. Difficult to choose, we love all the tours we do with the runners who come to follow us. Here, we recall the tours made with Heidi, Angela, Nicole and Katherine from New York, end of September, with Sarah from England, beginning of October, with Alicia and Brooke from California and very recently, in the cold of December, with Jessica from Connecticut. Photos remind us of these good times. Photos and also some little curiosities… On the way, some very Parisian surprises (our guides will explain to you all these curiosities which mark out our routes): Sarah ran with us four times. It is always with a renewed pleasure that we share new aspects of Paris with this experienced runner: At the beginning of November, we had the joy of running with Alicia and her daughter Brooke who came to join us a second time: More recently, we welcomed Jessica. The cold of December does not scare the runners: 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:
A personalized tour? What shall I discover of Paris? Known and unknown sites
Here is a question that is often put to us: “I would like to see monuments and sites very well known in Paris but also places less touristic … What am I going to visit with Paris Running Tours ?” Of course, during the run, our guides will make you discover the iconic sites of Paris (with total peace of mind, before the crowd). However, during the same run, our guides, authentic Parisians, will take you to other magnificent places less known and rarely visited by tour operators, AirBnB tours, large groups or standardized tours. We take time before the run to prepare your custom-made tour: you will understand Paris in a unique way. Running allows us to grasp many aspects of Paris, and to discover alternatively the prestigious monuments and also places less known sites by the general public but equally exciting. At Paris Running Tours we know how to lead you there 😉 Here is a panel (a quite small sample) of what you can visit with Paris Running Tours (click on the picture to enlarge them): Thank you Helen and Mike from New Zealand, Catherine from Australia, Kristine from New-York, Chrissann and Michael from New-Jersey, Nicole from Australia, Melissa and Chris from Washington, who ran recently with us and all the other runners we are happy to welcome on our tours. We love to share with you the beauty of the prestigious sites of Paris and the charm of other lesser known places… 😀 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:
How many Arcs of Triumph in Paris? With Adam and Bridget
Adam and Bridget (Philadelphia) began their vacations in Paris with a sport discovery of the City. Paris Running Tours prepared them a tour which included well-known historical places and also spots and buildings less famous but still fascinating. Running while visiting offers the possibility of seeing many district and understanding numerous aspects of the city. The photo above is taken at the start of what we call the “Historical Axis of Paris“. Do you know where exactly is the spot which starts this perspective? We already spoke about this axis during the visit of Juliana and Pedro in 2012. You can also directly look at the track of this axis in the image we created (Click on it for all the details). So, how many Arcs of Triumph in Paris? We can already count one in the photo above: the Arc of the Carrousel. Now let us enlarge the Arc of the Carrousel in the axis of the perspective: What do we see in its center? The Arc of Triumph of Charles de Gaulle square (“Place de l’Étoile”), it gives two Arcs. These two Arcs were built at the request (and for the glory) of Napoleon 1st. If we get closer to the Arc of Triumph, for example in the middle of the Garden of the Tuileries and we look at the center of the Arc of Triumph, we can see far away another Arc, newer this time, The “Grande Arche de la Défense”. It gives three Arcs. Look, in the right of the first photo of the article: This separation marks the city wall of the King Charles V. If you continue on the track of this wall you will join what we call the “Grands Boulevards”. It is precisely the place we are going with Bridget and Adam. The “Grands Boulevards” replace this protective wall created by Charles V and then completed on the West by Louis XIII. Later, the King, saying that he was able to defend his country (and even more…), had this wall destroyed to give what will become “les Grands Boulevards”. To replace the entrances in the North of the City, the Doors of Paris, he had two Arcs built, the “Arc de la Porte Saint-Martin” and the “Arc de la Porte Saint-Denis“: Two additional Arcs, it gives 3+2 = 5! 5? The “Grande Arche de la Défense” not being in Paris, it gives 4. Therefore we have Four arcs of Triumph in Paris. But, by the way, who is this King who built these two “Doors”? You can read “LUDOVICO MAGNO“, Louis the Great, Louis XIV, the Sun King! Admire the sculptures, all for his victories and his glory. He dominates his enemy, buried under the ground, or the defeated peoples come to give him the keys of their cities: Not far from the Grands boulevards, we discover a nicely decorated pediment, with in the vignettes, the five continents and lower, the Prudence which holds the mirror of the Truth: But what is this building? A Bank! Merci Bridget ! Merci Adam ! 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:
VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017
Big thanks to all the runners who came to discover Paris with us in 2016! We wish you all a very happy new year and are looking forward to your visit in 2017. Happy running!
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 :
In front of the rotunda of La Villette with Felicity
Felicity – Rotunda of la Villette 7:51 AM – Do you remember Felicity from Melbourne, Australia ? (See the post here.) Two years ago, we ran along the river Seine. This time, our route led us to the North East of Paris, since Montmartre up to the Ourcq canal, then to the Saint-Martin canal and to the Grand boulevards. First of all, we followed the former plan of the Wall of the Farmers Generals. Paris grew as an onion, protected successively by various surrounding walls (as for example, Philippe Auguste’s surrounding wall, see the post here). All these walls had a protective function except one: the Wall of the Farmers Generals. The different city walls of Paris The Wall of the Farmers Generals served to collect the tax on all the goods entering Paris (the “Octroi”). Its construction began before the Revolution in 1784, it was destroyed in 1860. At the time, we thus entered Paris by passages, barriers. Most of these barriers contained buildings called “bureaux d’octroi” (“offices of granting”). 61 “bureaux d’octroi” were created by the architect Nicolas Ledoux. There remains of these constructions among which the beautiful rotundas of the Parc Monceau and of the Villette. We can see the Rotunda of the Villette at the beginning of this article. We then followed the Saint-Martin canal, which construction was decided by Napoleon the 1st. Felicity – Saint-Martin Canal A little later, we joined the Grand boulevards and admired the Arc de Triomphe of the Saint-Denis gate, arc created by king Louis XIV, arc dedicated to the consecration of his glory (” Ludovico Magno “!). You will find the history of this Arc de Triomphe and the Grand boulevards in an article of the blog=> here. Felicity – “Porte Saint-Denis” Finally, back to Montmartre, we crossed the Moulin Rouge. Felicity – The “Moulin Rouge” Contrary to the “Moulin de la Galette” (see the picture here), the “Moulin Rouge” was never a real windmill, but from the beginning, a cabaret, this famous cabaret which saw the birth of the “French cancan” and which is always in service. Merci Felicity ! The route of the tour :