Running tour · Paris

Bastille to Saint-Germain

4.8 mi run

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The stories on this route

1. Place de la Bastille

   Look up at the column in the middle of the square. On top, the gilded Spirit of Freedom holds a torch and broken chains.

2. Place des Vosges

   Look around you: red brick and white stone on all four sides, steep blue slate roofs, arcades underneath. Every front was built to one design. This was the Place Royale, built by Henri IV from 1605 to 1612.

3. The Hôtel de Ville

   Look at the long front of the Hôtel de Ville, lined with statues of famous Parisians. There are 338 of them, by about 230 sculptors. One was Rodin.

4. Île Saint-Louis

   Look along the street for the church clock jutting out over it like a shop sign. That's the island's church.

5. The Panthéon

   Look up at the front of the Panthéon: columns like a Roman temple, a stone dome on top, and carved under the pediment, 'Aux grands hommes la patrie reconnaissante'. In English, to the great men, from a grateful nation.

6. The Luxembourg Gardens

   Welcome to the Luxembourg Gardens. Parisians call it le Luco. Look for the palace at the north end.

7. Saint-Sulpice

   Look up at Saint-Sulpice, the second-largest church in Paris. Its two towers don't match. Queen Anne of Austria laid the first stone in 1646, and building dragged on for well over a century, halted at one point for lack of money. In the 1770s Chalgrin rebuilt the north tower, taller.

8. Saint-Germain-des-Prés

   Welcome to the finish. Look up at the square bell tower over the church door, with its plain, fortress-like base. It was begun around the year 990, one of the oldest bell towers in France. Saint-Germain-des-Prés is often called the oldest church in Paris.

Stories researched October 2026 · every fact checked against a source