Paris: Intellects and Old Worlds

Paris
Intellects and Old Worlds
Distance: About 3.1 miles, about 5km
Start and Finish: Gare d’Austerlitz

As the Pantheon in Rome was dedicated to all the great gods, the Pantheon in Paris is dedicated to great men. Among those buried there are Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Jean Moulin, Marie Curie (the only woman to be so honored), Descartes, and Louis Braille. This run also takes you by the Natural History museum, if you want to see the old kings of the animal world, and by the Jardin des Plantes, if you want to see some treasures of the floral type. The Arab World Institute is also on the way, which beside its decorative exterior, is a good place to learn about the rich culture and history of the arab world and its great scholars. If learning was done through osmosis, this would be a very academic route!


- Starting at the Gare d’Austerlitz metro station, enter the main entrance to the Jardin des Plantes. Towards the back you’ll pass through the Natural History Museum (definitely worth a trip inside on a non-running excursion! Many extinct species are here).
- Leaving the park you’ll run right into the Musée de Mineralogie, the Grand Galerie de l’Evolution, and La Mosquée
- Head right, along the park until you make a left on Rue Lacépéde. Keep going straight in this direction and you’ll pass a cozy square with a well in the center.
- At Rue Clotilde make a right and you will bump into the Pantheon. Take a clockwise circle around it but stop once you reach the end of the opposite side you started on, and continue straight on Rue Clovis until Rue Monge. It’s a main street so you can’t miss it.
- Take a left until Blvd Saint-Germain (another main one) and turn right. This will take you back to the water, right in front of the Arab World Institute.
- From there follow the river back to the park, where you can explore a bit in the western side of it until you get back to the front entrance.
- Take a cool down by walking across the bridge and back before you finish.

Posted by BritnyRun9