A Paris Run

Climbing the 600 steps to the Eiffel Tower's 2nd floor

Mike and I spent our Thanksgiving week in Paris.  Having been many times, this trip was about showing our godson and nieces this beautiful city.  This was the first vacation in the last few years that we left the swim gear behind as there were better things to do than look at the black line on the pool bottom.  So, ascending the first two floors of the Eiffel Tower via the stairs and the 300 stairs up to Sacre Coeur’s dome became our natural StairMaster.  And, we logged about 30 miles of walking during our stay as we explored the streets of Paris and the grounds of Versailles.

Climbing Sacre Coeur's 300 steps

On the last morning, with not much time to spare, we decided to go for a run.  While we had seen a few new corners of Paris this trip, nothing had given me that newly discovered sense of awe…until this run.  We set out from our Saint Honore apartment dodging people and “merde de chien” (it seems Parisians don’t clean up after their dogs), and made our way over to Parc Monceau when what to our wondering eyes did appear but a flock of fellow runners (apparently a growing sport in France although not to the same numbers of the US) and a handful of people doing the Parisian version of bootcamp.

As we made our way around the outer circular path, we came upon an interesting array of monuments – had we stumbled upon some ancient Roman ruins???  During my travels home I researched the history of the park – Wikipedia satisfied my curiosity:

The park was established by Phillippe d'Orleans, Duke of Chartres, a cousin of King Louis XVI, fabulously wealthy, and active in court politics and society. In 1769 he had begun purchasing the land where the park is located. In 1778, he decided to create a public park, and employed the writer and painter Louis Carrogis Carmontelle to design the gardens, which was was finished in 1779. It contained a miniature Egyptian pyramid, a Roman colonnade, antique statues, a pond of water lilies, a tatar tent, a farmhouse, a Dutch windmill, a temple of Mars, a minaret, an Italian vineyard, an enchanted grotto, and "a gothic building serving as a chemistry laboratory," as described by Carmontelle.

While The Duke was a supporter of the ideas of the French Revolution, and even voted, as a member of the Assembly, for the execution of his own cousin, Louis XVI, it did not save him. He was guillotined during the Reign of Terror in 1793, and the park was nationalized.

After the monarchy was restored, the park was restored to the family of the Duke.  In 1860 the park was purchased by the city, and in August 1861 Parc Monceau became the first new public park in Paris to be remade by Baron Haussmann as part of the grand transformation of Paris begun by Emperor Louis Napoleon.

There have been some remarkable events at this site.  In 1797, it was the site of the first silk parachute jump, when Andre-Jacque Garnerin jumped from a Montgolfier hot air balloon, landing in the park where a large crowd was gathered.  In 1871, following the downfall of Louis Napoleon, and the subsequent uprising and then crushing of the Paris Commune, the park was the site of a massacre of Communards by army troops. Claude Monet painted a series of three paintings of the park in the spring of 1876 and two further paintings in 1878.

So, on this morning Paris run, I was in awe.  I didn’t know the whole history but I had sixth sense that this was a “place magnifique”.  This “petit coin de Paris” (small corner of Paris) somehow brought our whole trip together…the stories of the French Revolution at Versailles, the guillotining in the Place de la Concorde, the Monet paintings in the Musee d’Orsay, and learning more about this guy “Haussmann” whose name surrounded our 8th arrondissement apartment.  This is why we travel – and run.