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:
Historic, artistic, scientific and sports stroll in Paris with Isabel
Isabel – Les Invalides 8:59 – Isabel, from Baltimore (USA), is a young, very regular runner as she runs 6 days a week. Visiting Paris, why not discovering the city by running? We thus went for 17 kilometers with a good pace for a stroll which we can qualify as historical, artistic, scientific and of course, sporting. Historical: Every Parisian place is a witness of the History, whether it is a small street, a small garden either a famous place or a most known building, for example, the “Invalides”. The “Invalides” reminds the will of king Louis XIV to regroup the disabled war veterans in a dedicated place, the “Hôtel des Invalides“. We can see the magnificent building in the background of the photo above. The dome is covered with 12 kilograms of gold deposited in fine layers. Inside, thrones the grave where rest Napoleon. A little earlier, we crossed the “Arènes de Lutèce” (see the picture above). At the time of the Roman Empire, more than 15000 spectators saw there the gladiators fought and wildcats appeared. They also could applauded theater performances. These arenas, rediscovered in the 19th century, have now more modest dimensions, but we can always see games there, more quiet certainly, as football (soccer) or “pétanque” (a form of lawn bowling). Lutecia was the former name of Paris in this period. Isabel – The Arènes of Lutèce Scientific : If there is a garden dedicated to the sciences, the “Jardin des plantes” is the one indeed: Isabel – Garden of the plants/Natural history museum – In the background, the great Gallery of the Evolution The garden of plants is, first of all, a botanical garden. It is a magnificent park which contains at the same time very big Greenhouses and specialized gardens, for example, the Alpine garden. The buildings contain various galleries dedicated, among others, to the mineralogy and to the geology, to the evolution, and to the paleontology. We see the gallery of the paleontology on the photo below (see, behind the windows, the big skeleton of a whale): Isabel – Gallery of Paleontology The garden of plants also contains a menagerie, one of the first menageries of the world. Even if these mammals do not exist any more, we were able to cross a mammoth on our way! The Mammoth of the “Jardin des plantes” – By his side, Isabel Artistic: Paris is a city of Art which counts at least 130 museums. Among them, the Museum of Modern Art: Isabel – Paris Modern Art Museum The Museum of Modern Art presents numerous works of the 20th century, some are famous (Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Modigliani, …) Finally, even though if it was rejected by numerous artists during its creation, is not the Eiffel Tower a gigantic work of art? Isabel – The Eiffel tower from the “Palais de Chaillot” Merci Isabel ! The route of the tour: