Thursday, April 26, 2018

Paris Wanderings, Day Eight (my last day in Paris!)

It was bittersweet then and it's bittersweet now. My last day in Paris! As we headed out to stroll the Promenade Plantée I realized I'd never snapped a photo of the Metro sign nearest our hotel. Such an iconic image...

Off the Metro and walking to our destination we spotted an interesting park backed by a semi-derelict building.

Vines have been working where there once were walls, but that angular doorway looks used.
Play equipment for the youngsters and all-season ping-pong tables for the older set.

The garden was definitely cared for.

With a wonderfully decorative archway covered with deciduous vines.

We'd been neglectful when it came to checking out historic churches on our walks, we stopped in this one.

The chairs were screwed to the horizontal wood pieces.
I quite liked this modern building.

I didn't know for sure, but had a feeling this was our destination.
And I was correct. These vines (?) have metal rigging to climb, we climbed the stairs behind that wall.
I hope they have a nice cool root-run under the sidewalk.

So I've skipped ahead, to the end of our walk on Promenade Plantée (in-depth coverage tomorrow) and we're descending back down to street level.
Fremontodendron! Not something I expected to see in France.

Blooming even.

A building? Or a planter? I guess I never really did find out.

I really wanted to go check out that Cordyline up-close, but there was a kinda crazy guy spouting off nonsense on a bench nearby, so I decided not to go there.

These rather ugly glass recycling containers were all around Paris. This was the first one I got to investigate up-close.

"Pour la tranquillite des riverrains merci de ne pas jeter os bouteilles entre 22 heures et 7 heures" translates to: "For the tranquility of the riverside residents, please do not throw away bottles between 10 pm and 7 am"

We stopped for a leisurely lunch here, at Cafe Le Remontalou. It was lovely, but thank goodness we were not in a hurry because it was so very slow...
Across the street was Ground Control, with mustard (?).

Upon returning home I caught a blog post on the Urban Jungle Bloggers about a pop-up shop here. I wish I would have known!
Up there, on top of the arches, is where we'll be tomorrow. It's the Paris version of NYC's Highline.

Another teaser for tomorrow's post. We first spotted this unusual building from up on the promenade, it was nice to get a different view from the street.

And one of the Metro stations. I wish I'd been better about photographing them, everyone was different.

The bright yellow chairs set a cheery-tone.

Our final stop was at Les Caves Du Louvre, a wine cellar connected to the Louvre that offered wine tastings and seemed to cater to the tourists. I was very apprehensive about visiting, I smelled a scam and was not up for it. Thankfully my friend Julie had a much kinder heart, and less suspicious mind, and persuaded me to venture in.
It was great fun to explore...

And learn...

And we tasted some wonderful wines. Had I known that Air France was going to force me to check my carry-on bag I might have bought a bottle of the amazing Pinot Noir/Cabernet blend we tasted. It was delicious! (Julie was smart enough to have bought one)

Climbing up out of the cellars we discovered a planted courtyard.
And just like that it was time to head back to the hotel and attempt to stuff everything into our suitcases for our early morning departure.

Weather Diary, April 25: Hi 84, Low 52/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2018 by Loree Bohl for danger garden (dg). Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

14 comments:

  1. The Metro sign nearest your hotel: totally awesome. The yellow station you photographed is immaculate! (where are all the people?). The planted courtyard: so lovely and so French.

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    1. I think we hit the station right in between trains, and most everyone else knew the schedules. We were outside of the really touristy area and it was a weekday. Plus it was January. Prime time to avoid the masses.

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  2. "Ground Control to Mustard Tom: commencing grilling. Hot dogs, on!" I couldn't resist, and didn't really want to. I would have wanted a closer look at that palm near the cordyline, but also would have avoided the person spouting nonsense. The recycling receptacle brings to mind a lopsided and unhappy cartoon whale, or some other creature. I love the branches on the ceiling in Les Caves de Louvres. The other two photos remind me of a place I went to I think during my time in Massachusetts or maybe Pennsylvania, that I had completely forgotten about until seeing those photos.

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    1. Hmmm. I guess somebody had to do it...

      Ya for the most part Paris had me feeling extremely safe at all times, but why push you luck when you can play it safe?

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  3. Can you imagine a sign asking people to not make noise with bottles they're tossing late at night here? Somehow I imagine a lot of folks would make noise on purpose. Whew, am I a little bit cynical or what?

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    1. Got that right. I once attended the inaugural game of a WHL hockey team in Philadelphia, where the management was clueless enough to hand out souvenir pucks to everyone attending -- regulation size and weight pucks, but bright red. My friends and I looked at each other as we took them, knowing what was bound to happen.

      The start of the game was delayed and delayed, apparently due to problems with the ice. A couple of red pucks sailed onto the ice after a while, and then came the inevitable announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, PLEASE DO NOT throw objects onto the playing surface." Which of course was followed by an absolute *hailstorm* of red pucks, this being Philly and all.

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    2. You both are cracking me up. And yes, I thought the very same thing.

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  4. Seems like you could spend months in Paris and never explore it all - so much much cool stuff to see! Looking forward to tomorrow's post about the elevated garden!

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  5. Was every day there grey? The Fremontodendron was a big surprise.

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    1. There was a little sunshine (like here: http://www.thedangergarden.com/2018/02/our-paris-hotel-and-views-of-river-seine.html) but remember we were there during the historic flooding. That takes rain, lots of it. And thus clouds, lots of them.

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  6. You explored Paris in such a more satisfying way than I did so many, many years ago. If I ever get a chance to get back there, I'm going to review all your Paris posts AND contact you for tips.

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  7. So impressed by how much of Paris you have explored. Must admit we do tend to gravitate towards the same areas each time we visit.

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  8. Love those Metro stations.

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