If you really want to see the city, do it on the run. You might think that’s the worst way to experience history. You’d be wrong. The exertion and the speed, the concentration and the rush of sensation, all work together to give the experience a new intensity. On the run, you don’t ponder Paris or Rome, London or Copenhagen. You absorb them.
On the outskirts of many European capitals are enormous parks like the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, or the Foret de Soignes in Brussels. But the city centers also have magnificent swaths of green. Rome is dense with traffic, and the sidewalks are narrow, but the Villa Borghese is wide open for running. From the Pincio Garden and its terrace there are spectacular views of the Piazza del Popolo, the Tiber, St. Peter’s and all the other lost glories of empire. Madrid has the formal terraces of El Retiro. Berlin has the Tiergarten, once divided by the wall. In Copenhagen you can run along the quaint harbor of Nyhavn, up the waterfront and onto the parapets of the Kastellet near the Little Mermaid.
For inner-city running, few places are as well laid-out as London. Regent’s Park is convenient for some, and Hampstead Heath has passionate devotees. But Kensington Garden, Hyde Park, Green Park and St. James Park are all adjacent to each other, right in the middle of town. Here you see both the relics of empire and the coziness of English gardens.
And then there’s Paris. The city has the huge Bois de Boulogne to the west, and the Bois de Vincennes to the east. Some runners like to do laps on the Champ de Mars in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Others, less ambitious, like the half-mile circuit in the gemlike Parc Monceau.
But in Paris it’s the River Seine, the mosaic of small parks near it and the pedestrian bridges, avenues and alleys that tie them all together that afford the most memorable run. Less than an hour if you’re fit, less than two if you’re not, is enough for a long, lopsided figure-eight on both the Right Bank and the Left Bank. The whole distance is just shy of eight miles (graphic). You go from the French president’s Elysee Palace to the Place de la Concorde. The architectural perspectives change with all the precision of a kaleidoscope as you pass by the Belle Epoque lampposts and statues, the fountain and the distant colonnades, with the Eiffel Tower on the horizon.
You run through the middle of the Jardin des Tuileries, past the statuary of pensive men and raging animals, then cross the river on the Pont Royal. Downstream to the right is the huge Musee d’Orsay, to the left is the Ile de la Cite, and no matter the weather, there is a romantic energy about the view from the bridges of Paris that gives you a fantastic lift.
Onward. Up the Rue de Seine, past the church of St. Sulpice, to the Jardin du Luxembourg. The gate is right in front of you, and you turn to run the inside perimeter, where Ernest Hemingway used to swagger and stagger with Gertrude Stein and Scott Fitzgerald. Three quarters around the park is another gate, toward the Pantheon.
Loop around the back of the Lycee Henri IV, and start down hill at last on the Rue Rene Descartes, named for the philosopher. You run, therefore you are. You’re among the great universities of Paris here, in the bohemian heart of the city. Little streets lead down to the Boulevard St. Germain, with its wide, easy-to-run sidewalks. You cut across to the Ile St. Louis. Few views of Notre Dame are more spectacular. Then cross to the Ile de la Cite and along the Quai de l’Horloge, where the same ornate clock was keeping time when the French royal family waited nearby for their appointment with the guillotine.
The Pont Neuf takes you to the Left Bank again, just long enough to take the next bridge, the pedestrians-only Pont des Arts, back across the river. Then it’s straight into the middle of the Louvre courtyard, and head for the axis that runs through the Carrousel arch, the Tuileries gardens again, the gold-tipped obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, the huge Arc de Triomphe at the top of the Champs Elysees and the even more enormous Grande Arche de la Defense beyond it. On a clear day, you can see them all, and you could keep going straight down that line. But if the shops aren’t open, and the sidewalks are relatively empty, you can detour up to the Rue St. Honore past some of the most luxurious shopping in Paris. You pass it on the run, and you may be out of breath, but at least you’re not out of pocket.
You’ve bought nothing, in fact. But there’s this great sense as you come to the end that you’ve taken possession of the places you’ve been. You feel like you own the city. After all, you earned it.
Running the World, Step by Step
Paris is not the only city that offers scenic vistas and hidden treasures to the traveler who is, literally, on the run. Anyone with a pair of jogging shoes and a sense of adventure can find breathtaking routes around the world. A sampling of some of our favorites:
Berlin Tiergarten, the park that leads to the Reichstag
Boston Along the Charles River to Cambridge and back to Beacon Hill
Buenos Aires From the Recoleta up Ave. del Libertador along the River Plate
Cape Town From Victoria and Alfred waterfront past beautiful beaches at Clifton to Camps Bay; the Atlantic Ocean is on the right, mountains on the left
Hong Kong From Admiralty up to Bowen Rd.; halfway up Victoria Peak
London Kensington Garden, Hyde Park, Green Park and St. James Park are adjacent; or run along the Thames from Parliament to Blackfriars Bridge
Paris Absorb the monumental grandeur along the Seine, through the elegant 6th arrondissement, up to the Pantheon and back to the Louvre
Rome The Villa Borghese, with views of the city’s monuments from the Pincio Garden 9. Sydney Along the harbor and up through the Botanical Garden
Tokyo Around the Imperial Palace (best to go early in the morning)
Vancouver Stanley Park offers views of downtown and the mountains
Washington, D.C. Around the Mall; Fall River Parkway; Chesapeake and Ohio Towpath along the canal
