If you were to be in Paris on any given Thursday night, ambling along the Champs-Élysées, odds are you would see and hear us, a stampede of 150 runners storming through the city to the beat of whatever playlist is being blared from within the fast-moving group.

Under the guidance of certified coaches who lead the runs and direct traffic, runners with the Nike Running France crew get a twilight tour of Paris every week, charging past major landmarks like the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, thundering through the underground Metro tunnels and gliding past confused outdoor cafe drinkers.

For locals, the group is a good way to take a traditionally solitary sport and turn it into a social one.

For visitors, the runs serve as a free, guided tour of Paris — and perhaps an excuse to tuck into another éclair.

After signing up for the event on Facebook, we meet at the flagship Nike store on the Champs-Élysées, where the group invariably attracts the curious looks of passers-by — and understandably so. The runners make for an impressive and surprising presence on an avenue known more for its luxury brand names and well-heeled tourists than for sports attire and mud-splashed running shoes.

As the light begins to fall, we set off for a run set to music that spans three to a bit more than four miles, punctuated with intense drills at major landmarks in the area led by the no-nonsense coaches.

After sweeping past a moon-washed Seine, for instance, runners may be commanded to drop to the ground in the courtyard of the Louvre for sets of situps, to the amusement of tourists and locals alike. Or runners may find themselves sprinting down the steps of Trocadéro attention divided between the lights of the Eiffel Tower in the distance and a coach’s command to fly faster, stronger down the stairs.

As unlikely as it may seem, Paris seems to be developing a reputation as a runner’s paradise.

According to Romain Boutevillain, company director of the timekeeping site Top Chrono, which organizes runs throughout the city, registration numbers for a series of races called the Paris Running Tour have been climbing steadily by about 10 percent every year since it began in 2007-08.

Throughout the year, arrondissements in Paris map out 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) races designed to showcase their neighborhoods. This year, about 20,000 runners will compete in 14 runs. Recently, about 780 runners explored the 19th Arrondissement in a race that took them through hilly Buttes-Chaumont, arguably the prettiest park in the city, and the outer limits of the city’s northeast end, far from the usual tourist destinations. The city has also started a program called Top Chrono Timepoint, in partnership with Top Chrono, in which digital panels will be erected in three to five parks by the end of the year. Panels were recently installed in Parc Suzanne Lenglen in the 15th arrondissement. Runners who have purchased a personalized chip will be able to see their distance and progress displayed on the panels in real time.

The new system also is intended to build more of a community among the city’s runners with a Facebook page that encourages members to share their results, organize rendezvous at Timepoint parks, and find friends who share a love of the sport, Boutevillain said.

Some of the most innovative runs in Paris this year have been organized by Nike. To promote Nike’s first women-only 10-kilometer race in Paris, the firm’s young creative team hosted a series of special training sessions during May that took 150 runners up to the roof of the Arc de Triomphe; rolled out the red carpet along the steps of the Sacré-Coeur Basilica to replicate the experience at the Cannes Film Festival; and brought in a few star rugby players to encourage participants. At another Nike event last winter, this one with Paris rooftops as its theme, 150 nocturnal runners were illuminated by fluorescent glow sticks and garlands. We stormed the uppermost floors of empty outdoor parking lots where we performed sprinting exercises; the upper deck of the Wanderlust nightclub along the Quai d’Austerlitz, where we dropped for rounds of ab work; and the rooftop of the Institut du Monde Arabe, where the climb to the top was rewarded with pulsing strobe lights, blaring tunes and sweeping views of the Seine and Notre Dame.

En route, coaches lighted purple flares to announce the group’s presence. As we exited the Metro system, the stream of runners was showered with bags of confetti. And as we crossed a bridge over the Seine, fireworks appeared on both sides of the group, to light up the Parisian sky.