Travel Journal, 124
In August of 2021, me and a friend traveled to Paris to go for a run. Follow along with this map of our run. We ran 75 km over a day-and-a-half. Here’s how we did it:
Running south, we immediately hit the Seine and saw Sainte-Chapelle and the Louvre. The Louvre houses some of the world’s tressures. But we had no time to peruse the buildings and floors of art and history. The stunning enlightenment-era architecture takes your breath away. In the US, our oldest structures were built during the Revolutionary War, or sometime after the Civil War. But Europe’s far older. And even knowing this, Paris somehow feels older than the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Perhaps it’s the medieval skeletal structures that bleed through that gives it a haunting feeling. Most of the buildings here were born in the Middle Ages and grew to what we know now, stone and glass cathedrals and palaces.
We ran (literally) into the Louvre from its famous entrance at the Tuileries Garden, through its courtyards and fountains and statues, then back the way we came. When exiting the Louvre at the Place de la Concord (an 18th century Egyptian Obelisk) visitors gaze down the expansive and very photographed avenue Champs-Élysées. Great leaders (Napoleon Bonaparte) and not so great leaders (Adolf Hitler) have walked and ridden down this 1.2-mile-long street, lined with fantastic shopping and even more fantastic history. And it all leads to the Arc de Triomphe. We ran the roundabout seeing every side of this 162’ tall structure, arguing about the French Revolution. Emperor Bonaparte commissioned the towering arch while he stilled ruled. It was ironically finished long after the government he created exiled him and he died of a mysterious illness.
Our run tour of Paris led back down to the Seine and connected us with the most famous structure of Paris, the Eiffel Tower. We took cliched pictures and posed hilariously, as is probably required by all that governs tourists. The tower is actually pretty cool. Not as old as the rest of Paris, but very interesting nonetheless. But honestly, I had other things on my mind. Namely food and coffee.
A few blocks away, I talked Seth into stopping for second breakfast. I speak such horrible French. I know a handful of words and all of them have to do with ordering coffee and food. We found a little café and I ordered us two omelets and two café cremes (This is just what the French call a cappuccino. They drink it in the morning. It also usually comes with chocolate dusted on top.)
After fueling up on omelets and fries and coffee, we trudged along the Seine leaving the iconic sites behind us. We tend to think of Paris as a caricature of itself—a connect the dots of Eiffel Towers and museums. Throw in a couple of macaroons and you’ve got yourself a foreign film. But Paris, like all places, is home to people living out their lives in business and play. So we left the icons behind us and ran toward the Paris of the people. Apartment buildings and grocery stores line the river here. Parts of the river are simply not as clean. Boats dot the river throughout the city. But it seems the further away from downtown you go, the more houseboats you see. Then crossing the Pont de Saint-Cloud, Seth and I found a mostly gravel pathway on the eastern side of the river (city side).
This pathway led us through over 5 miles of houseboats and far more seclusion than the city running we’d been doing. To our left, the Seine—to our right, wooded land; this is part of the massive Bois de Boulogne public park area. For me, this was probably the most enjoyable running, since we could avoid cars and pedestrians. It also gave us a better view of the river and wooded land.
The gravel path finally popped us out onto a sidewalk much like the walkway on which we began this run. But by now, we were hungry and thirsty. We checked our phones until Seth recognized a grocery store chain he’d seen in Spain. After over 20 miles of running, we were very ready for some (more) fuel.
anthony forrest
Part 1: getting there and getting started
Part 2: connecting and running
Follow along each week for the rest of our run along the Seine River in Paris.
Leave a Reply