Paris is one of the world’s great cities. History, architecture, museums, food, culture, beauty, and walkability make Paris one of the world’s most popular travel destinations, with more than 30 million annual tourists and millions more business travelers. Our guide to running in Paris is divided into Paris Central and Paris: Suburbs for routes in areas outside the First Ring Road (Périphérique). For a guided running experience in Paris, we highly recommend Go! Running Tours.
If you are staying in the heart of the city, running along the Seine is a treat, with seamless paths that go for many km, with great views of the river and important Paris sites. Our 10-mile “highlights of Paris” tour, includes The Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysées, and the city’s famous parks and gardens all in one run. Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes are two large and wonderful city parks at either edge of the city. And running along the Canal St. Martin’s meandering paths out to Parc de Villette is a treat. Our Montmartre tour is lovely at sunset, and the PlantPé is a park following a former rail line. Further afield, running at Versailles will make you feel like a king.
Notes: Staying inside the main beltway surrounding Paris will provide access to decent running options. Good anchor/departure points for our best runs are Notre Dame (“Cité), La Bastille, and La Defense. A few particular recommendations for running in Paris: if you want to see some of the ‘tourist’ highlights, try to go early to avoid the crowds; take advantage of the fabulous public transportation and bike sharing system, which puts you within a 10–20 minute subway ride from some of the best runs, or allows you to do a longer ‘one way’ run; and pay attention to closing times for some of the parks. Also when we say “12e” that means “12th arrondissement”.