Very happy new year 2016!
Big thanks to the 300 runners who came to discover Paris with us in 2015! We wish you all a very happy 2016! Happy running!
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:
Around the Louvre with Janaina and Gustavo
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: 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) : 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: 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: 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: 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: 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): 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“: 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: 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): 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 :
In front of the Opéra Garnier with Lourdes
Lourdes – Opéra Garnier Paris Click on the picture for a larger view 8:17 AM – Lourdes, from Mexico, ended its stay in Europe with a short stage in Paris. How to take advantage of Paris when we have not a lot of time? A fast morning run before taking back the plane? Why not?! How lucky! The weather was very beautiful on this Saturday morning. From the North of Paris, we thus ran to join the Louvre and the Tuileries by benefiting of the Palais Royal, the place Vendôme and the Opera Garnier. We made a small break to be able to admire the Opera. If you look on the right of the Opera, in the left of the porch, you perceive a statue, the Dance : Click on the picture for a larger view “La Danse “, representing the genius of the Dance, was realized by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux for the Opéra Garnier. It is here a copy. You can see the original statue at the Museum of Orsay. During its implementation in 1869, the work made scandal! “What?! Naked women enjoying life!” The architect Charles Garnier, creator of the opera, even received a famous letter: ” I have a woman, Sir, and girls fascinated by music who often go to the opera. It will be impossible for them henceforth because I shall never grant to lead them in a monument the sign of which is the one of a bad place. “! Some even threw ink on the statue: Under the pressure of the public opinion, Napoleon III was ready to remove the work, but the war of 1870 burst and saved the statue. To find the original statue (cleaned!), go to the Musée d’Orsay. Take advantage of it, the museum was completely renewed in 2011. Merci Lourdes ! The route of the tour :