Anne – “Place des Vosges”

9:09 AM – Anne from Washington D.C. (USA) is a regular runner (look at her blog). In this first Monday of August, we had decided to cross Paris by running from east to west. We left a place near the square of “Nation” with the objective to reach “Palais de Chaillot” to take advantage of the beautiful view on the Eiffel Tower offered by the “Esplanade of the Trocadéro”.
To go there by the shortest route? No, no, we chose to make a lot of zigzags to be able to appreciate Paris in all its magnificence. In the end, nearly 11 miles of an attractive tourist and sports route.

First photo stop: the “Place des Vosges”. Very quiet this morning (photo above).
Read here the funny short story of the statue of Louis XIII situated in the center of the garden. 
Did you know that this Royal place was renamed “Place des Vosges” because this department in the east of France was the first one to pay the tax during the Revolution?

From “Place des Vosges”, to join the street Saint Antoine, we took the magnificent shortcut offered by the Hotel of Sully:

Anne – “Hôtel de Sully”


Still in the “Marais” (right bank), we are going to penetrate the Philippe Auguste’s Paris (by postern Saint-Paul). Indeed, king Philippe Auguste, at the end of the 12th century, before leaving for his third crusade, made build an important protective wall around Paris. Numerous parts of this surrounding wall are still visible nowadays. Below, the longest preserved portion of the wall.
Discover here another massive part of the wall, left bank this time, as well as plans representing Paris of this time.

Anne – Well of Phillippe Auguste – 12th century (Behind the wall, “Lycée” Charlemagne – High school)


Let us cross the Seine to visit the Island of “La Cité”. Look (photo below) at the installations of “Paris-Plages” (Paris-beaches), right bank. Do you see the small red Eiffel Tower? We had spoken about it here and here.

Anne – “Paris-Plages”


Back right bank, surprise! A metro entrance (Palais-Royal station):

Anne – “Métro Palais-Royal” (“Le kiosque des Noctambules” – Jean-Michel Othoniel)


Compare this modern art subway entrance installed in 2000 with those created one hundred years earlier, representative of the “Art nouveau” movement: see here some examples of these metro entrances created in 1900. As a matter of fact, the other entrance of the same station, Palais-Royal, just in front of the Louvre, is typically “Art nouveau”.

Zigzag, small detour on left bank, “Quai Anatole France”. Just in the opposite, the garden of the Tuileries which we are quickly going to join…

Anne – “Quai Anatole France”


…crossing the footbridge Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, which gives us a beautiful view on, from left to right, the Louvre, Notre-Dame and the Orsay museum:

Anne – Footbridge Léopold-Sédar-Senghor


In the garden of the Tuileries, here is a new example of modern art that we meet, a tree in bronze!

Anne – “L’arbre des voyelles” (bronze molding installed in 1999 – Giusseppe Pepone)


After other numerous discoveries, we finish our running as expected, Esplanade of the Trocadéro:

Anne – “Esplanade du Trocadéro”
Objective reached!

Merci Anne !

The route of the tour :


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