Paris Journal 2012 – Barbara Joy Cooley Home: barbarajoycooley.com
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Understandably, some people might think the purpose of this journal is tourist oriented. Make no mistake, however: for us, Paris is where we live in the summer. This journal is about living here. Like most people who live here, when we have a weekend day with glorious weather and when we don’t have too much work to do, we like to go to a great park. That’s why we walked over to Parc André Citroën yesterday. Many other residents of the 15th and 16th arrondissements (and beyond) had the same idea. Joyfully, we all enjoyed the place. I hope the park’s designers stop by now and then, on a beautiful summer day, to see how successful they have been. The park was created in 1992. As in many other Paris parks this summer, a number of the water features were turned off. But the great dancing fountain was on, and children were playing in it. The water cascades in one of the gardens in a western corner of the park were also turned on; I love that one, because it feels like a ravine whose sides are both roaring waterfalls. This time, we approached the park by walking down the lovely avenue Émile Zola to rue Gutenberg, which runs alongside the historic French national printing facility and ends up dipping into one of two arms of the park that reach out to the southeast, just after passing by the old, walled Grenelle cemetery. By entering the park there, we were able to walk all the way up along the northeast side of it, beside a series of magical gardens, each named for a color and designed with that color in mind. We rested in the shade at the end of that series of gardens, and then continued on to the northwest side of the park, which is built over a highway (you’d never know it was down there, in a tunnel) and extends along the Port de Javel bank of the Seine. Walking this way, we were looping around the vast, open middle part of the park, where many Parisians were sunbathing on the grass. In the Parc André Citroën, there are no fussy rules about not treading upon or lounging upon the grassy lawns. This is a park that is meant to be used, and experienced. We explored the quiet gardens and nooks in the western corner of the park, and then walked along its southern edge, dipping to the southeast into what had been, I think, the old gateway into the vast Citroën factory grounds. The factory originally made munitions, before it made the famous Citroën automobiles. Now, a series of mirrored modern office buildings called Le Ponant de Paris flank this southerly side of the park. They house companies like the Safran/Sagem defense/avionics/aerospace company, BPCE commercial banking and insurance, and the Banque Populaire. To the east of the park is Eutelsat, a satellite/telecommunications company. Nearby is the huge Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou. These are all pretty important operations! (The link above takes you to an impressive YouTube video about the hospital, which was the result of a merger of three, large, older hospitals in Paris.) In the middle of the park is a big balloon that, weather permitting, offers rides that simply entail going up, for a view. The balloon remains tethered to the park. From our apartment, we can see this balloon going up and down, all day, when the weather is good. We passed a vender of organic sorbets. His vehicle was an attractive vintage truck, probably a Citroën. At the end of the main part of the park, we exited through what I think was the old entrance to the factory grounds, but then we were still in a park, the Square Jean Cocteau, that was created nine years before the Parc André Citroën. Finally exiting parklands, we strolled up the avenue Félix Faure, pausing to examine one of the new Autolib’ stations. These free, or almost free, rentals of electric cars are supposed to be limited to those who have French driver’s licenses. But the instruction panel on the stanchion has options for English and Spanish instructions. That’s baffling, because don’t you have to know French in order to get a French driver’s license? We admired some beautiful hand-painted decorative tiles on the outside of a bakery that was closed. We admired other architectural features found on the avenue Félix Faure. At last, we arrived at Axuria, where we had made a dinner reservation. After another splendid dinner (daurade – Mediterranean fish - for me, steak for Tom), we strolled home up the avenue as darkness fell and city lights shone.
In the quiet western corner of the park, you can find stately birch trees amidst trimmed boxwoods.
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Sunday, August 12, 2012
A regimented forest of gorgeous trimmed magnolias provide shade on a lawn of
thick grass, which people are encouraged to use. In the middle of this image, you see the
dancing fountain where children are allowed to play in the water on a warm
summer day.
A
balloon offers a view of Paris from the sky.
That pointy thing in the middle of this photo is the top of the Eiffel
Tower in the distance.
Looking
down on one of the many gardens along the northeast side of the park. Hats off to garden designer, Gilles Clément,
who also designed the garden at the Musée du Quai Branly.
People
enjoying the park, in front of the modern office complex called Le Ponant de Paris.
Organic
sorbet vendor – I love those lidded brass containers.
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