Very happy new year 2018!
Very happy new year 2018! Big thanks to the 400 runners* who came to discover Paris with us in 2017! We wish you all a very happy 2018! Happy running! *It was not possible to put the photos of all you but we really enjoyed each tour we ran with you! 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:
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:
Memories of 2017, very good moments with our visitors (1/3)
So many good times spent with our fellow runners from all over the world in 2017. Even though we have many tours in this month of December, we take a little time at this end of the year to share some of the good memories that each tour gives us: three end of the year articles evoke some of these moments. The photos speak for themselves (with some text to comment on). Here, at the end of August, a few strides of the visit with Melissa and Chris from Washington DC (Thanks Chris for the pictures!). More simple, a little character awaits us when we return to the hotel: Merci Chris ! Merci Melissa ! 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:
Running, understanding, having fun!
At Paris Running Tours, we love to run in Paris with the runners of the entire world. RUNNING in Paris with our guides, it is not simply running, it is also discovering how Paris is designed, how Paris became this great capital, it is discovering many aspects of Paris and how the different sites and locations are linked to each other, in a word… it’s UNDERSTANDING the city. Running, understanding, learning while running, it’s HAVING FUN. The miles go fast, your mind kept alive, “listening” to the city. At Paris Running Tours, we do private tours, specially prepared for you. This time, we had the pleasure to welcome a team of thirty young and fast american runners with their coaches. RUNNING, DISCOVERY and FUN were there. Let’s speak their team leader, LeRoy (review published in TripAdvisor): “We brought our high school girls cross country team to France for training, ending our last day with a Paris Running Tour guided run. If you want to measure the quality of a program, stress it to the max, and we did. We were 33 runners, and yet Jean-Charles and Sylvain guided us seamlessly and safely through the City. […] Throughout the event, Jean-Charles and Sylvain pointed out minute details about Paris that we never would have seen from a tour bus. Most importantly, they did a great job keeping us interested. I would highly recommend these guys.” RUNNING UNDERSTANDING HAVING FUN Click on the pictures to enlarge them A big thank to LeRoy and the whole team! 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:
A Paris Running Tour under the flag of Canada, with Fanny from Coureurs Montréal Runners
For a Running Tours guide, it is always a great pleasure to run with runners from all over the world and a great joy to share our city. Fanny from Montreal came to meet us for a touristic jogging in Paris. Actually, Fanny created Coureurs Montréal Runners and, as we do, very much appreciates to show her city to the runners who come to visit Montreal. Therefore, we talked about our experiences and of course, visited Paris in a sports way. We wanted to give a Canadian touch to our route: We went to see the beautiful flag of the Canadian Embassy, in the very luxurious Avenue Montaigne, we then joined the “place du Canada” (which is very close to a famous Parisian monument…), in the “Palais Royal” garden, we appreciated the work of the Quebecker Michel Goulet, the “Confidents”, and we finished our tour “place du Québec” in the “Saint-Germain des Près” area where we admired Charles Daudelin’s work, “l’Embâcle” (ice jam) which evokes the melting ice of the St. Lawrence River: Merci Fanny ! We had the pleasure to run with our counterparts in London and Stockholm. Remember the Parisian tour we did with Hope from City Jogging Tour in London and the one ran in Stockholm with Hanna. If we go to Montreal, we will visit for sure this beautiful Canadian city with Fanny. Do a tour with coureursmontreal.com! You come to or you are in Paris, we will be very happy to run with you. Join us:
The routes we created for our visitors
In front of the invisible pyramid with Molly and Saul
9:00 AM – With Molly and Saul from California, we crossed by running Paris from west to east to make an attractive tour of more than 16 km (10 miles). We made a small stop in front of the Louvre and, what a surprise, the Louvre Pyramid seems to have disappeared by leaving a grey halo! Is it a photomontage? No, not at all, the pyramid was made invisible by the artist JR by a astonishing anamorphosis. (if you want to know more about JR’s works, go to this nice arts website at this page: https://www.artsy.net/artist/jr) A look aside makes us understand a little better the trompe-l’œil effect: We began our race near the “Palais de la Découverte” to join quickly the river Seine at the level of the “Pont de l’Alma” (bridge of Alma). A important number of photographers had assembled near the Zouave, who has become again an attraction because of the important flood of the Seine, this June 2016: By the way, let us take back the photography of the Bridge of the Alma and the Eiffel Tower, don’t you notice anything new in this Parisian landscape? The new Russian Orthodox Church in Paris:Find the zouave and the usual level of the Seine here. This flood is impressive and offers surprising views: From the “Pont de l’Alma”, we climb the avenue of President Wilson to join the hill of Chaillot and the beautiful views of the Eiffel Tower since the Trocadéro: Later, we cross again the Seine by the bridge Alexandre III: We alternate then the beautiful routes, right bank and left bank with the pleasure of running in the Latin Quarter in the street Rollin, lined with buildings of the XVIth and XVIIth centuries where lived, in particular, the philosophers Pascal and Descartes: Merci Molly, merci Saul ! The route of the tour:
From the square of the United States to the Palais Royal with Eather and Chris
Chris and Heather – “Place des Etats Unis” (Place of the US) – Memorial to the American volunteers 10:02 AM – With Heather and Chris, runners living in Virginia (USA), we left the “place Charles de Gaulle-Etoile” to join the “Palais Royal” and its magnificent garden. Along the way, we crossed the “place des Etats-Unis”(square of the United States). Do you know the story of this name? Originally, this square was called the “Place of Bitche” (a city of Lorraine, France). The ambassador of the United States came to settle down there in 1881. Impossible to reside in a square named Bitche, “Bitch” being a rather vulgar English slang word. Paris agreed to rename the place “Place of the United States” (the “place de Bitche” being now situated in the 19th district of Paris). The new name is well appropriate for the location, numerous points of this place are indeed connected to the United States of America, the statue of La Fayette and Washington shaking hands, the public garden Thomas Jefferson in the center, the statue of the American dentist Horace Wells who participated in the discovery of the anesthesia, the monument to the American Volunteers (photo above), etc. This monument pays tribute to the American volunteers enlisted in the French Foreign Legion and who succumbed by fighting during the World War I. Among them, the poet Alan Seeger. We followed our route and enjoyed our first beautiful point of view of the Eiffel Tower, the avenue of President Wilson: Heather and Chris – Avenue of the President Wilson Avenue of President Wilson, a reference to the United States again. This avenue leads itself to the “Place d’Iéna” in the middle of which appears a George Washington’s equestrian statue! Heather and Chris – Eiffel tower New stop, in the front of the Eiffel Tower this time. Notice the ball between the first one and the second floor. It is an huge tennis ball! Indeed, it is the period of “Roland Garros” tennis tournament. Having enjoyed the banks of the Seine and its numerous magnificent sites, we paused in the Louvre. Look at the Marly Courtyard: Heather and Chris – The Louvre – the Marly courtyard (The flash did not work!) In this blog, we spoke about the famous horses of Marly during a Paris visit with Mary. After leaving the museum, we found the sun again within the magnificent garden of the Palais Royal (many roses!): Merci Chris ! Merci Heather ! The route of the tour :
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: