Under the Eiffel tower with Rachel
Under the Eiffel Tower – Far off the Palais de Chaillot and the garden of Trocadéro 7:32 AM – Rachel, from Wales, is a regular runner with very good results… After the running tour in Paris, she arrived recently second woman of a half marathon. At present, she prepares for the next London Marathon. In this beginning of March, the sun is with us for an attractive tour of Paris by running. Look at the photo above, we are just under the Eiffel Tower. Early morning in March, the place is very quiet. Compare with the crowd that we can find on Easter Mondays for example or on a summer weekend there… Running early morning in Paris is a delight! Far off, on the other side of the Seine, we can recognize the majestic “Palais de Chaillot” which was built for the World Fair of 1937, last World Fair in Paris. The Palace of Chaillot replaced the Palace of Trocadéro built in the same place, that time for the World Fair of 1878: Aerial view of the “Palais du Trocadéro” – 1934 By the way, do you know what “Trocadéro” means? It is a fort which is situated in Cadiz in Spain and the place of a French victory; France came to help Spain to restore the absolute monarchy in 1823 (the king Louis XVIII reigns at that time in France). The Palace of the Trocadéro built in 1878 (and then the “Place du Trocadéro”) owes its name to a royalist victory! We went for running early, accompanied by the rising sun which lit for us the magnificent monuments of Paris: The Arc de Triomphe. We are in his shadow, the sun beginning to light the Champs-Elysées Palais Galliera Museum of the fashion with until, August 23rd, 2015, the exhibition dedicated to Jeanne Lanvin The Eiffel tower – We are at the “Palais de Chaillot”! The Alexandre III bridge with in the back the statue symbolizing the France of the Renaissance. At the top of the pylon, one of the four Fames: The Fame of the War. These four statues were covered with gold leaves in 1989. The Bridge of the Arts and in the back, the “Galerie du bord de l’eau” of the Louvre – The “Pont des Arts”, known these last years for all the padlocks which where put there by the loving tourists, is at present protected by wooden panels. These panels covered by graffitis spoil a little the beauty of the place. It should be temporary. The Palais Royal and its famous Columns of Buren (“Les deux plateaux”). The “Théâtre Ephémère” (short-lived theater) now disappeared. This wooden theater had welcomed temporarily the troop of the “Comédie Française” during the works of the “Palais Royal”. We can see again the garden of the “Palais Royal” through the columns. The Garden of the Tuileries – Our shadows are still very long! Merci Rachel ! We wish you a great London Marathon! The route of the 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 :