Walking the Coulée verte René-Dumont / aka Promenade Plantée, Paris

The Coulée verte René-Dumont or Promenade plantée (French for tree-lined walkway) or the Coulée verte (French for green course) is a 2.9 mile elevated linear park built on top of obsolete railway infrastructure in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was inaugurated in 1993 (source). You might say it's the Parisian version of NYC's Highline, although since the Highline opened some 16 years later I suppose it would be more accurate to call the Highline NYC's version of the Promenade plantée. Got that?

This looks pretty bleak doesn't it? It get's better, I promise.

While my gardener's heart was tempted, once again, to mourn the fact my visit was in January, not April, there was still plenty of beauty to be found here.

In addition to winter garden interest, it was also quite nice to be up above the traffic, a view that provided glimpses of the street scenes below as well as a different perspective on the buildings surrounding the elevated walkway.

I do love it when a vine becomes more significant than the structure holding it. At least when it's not in my garden.

So many chimney pots!

Euphorbia and Mahonia combo, just like home...

Did you notice this great fountain (for dogs and water bottles?) in the photo above?

I swear I've seen this gorgeous building in a film or maybe an advertisement.

Every neighborhood should have a bamboo tunnel, right?

Should you feel the urge to stop and work-out mid-walk no worries, get to it! (there was a staircase down from the promenade)

I am drawn to patterns.

So do you think there once was a building next to this one?

There were a few of these spaces off to the side of the main walkway. All featured bright paintings, and all but this one had people sitting on the bench, so I didn't snap photos.

A greenhouse?

This is the interesting building I shared a photo of yesterday, you definitely get a better view from up high.

Another shot of "Ground Control"...

I wonder if they put water plants in the ponds in springtime?

Something about this set-up kind gave me the shivers.

I just imagine mildew and spiders. I don't know why.

Another view of the interesting planted wall you saw yesterday.

Grevillea!

Gomphocarpus physocarpus

I wonder what's under the frost cloth?

My money is on a nice big Agave.

No, I didn't climb up there and peek.

Feel like a game of checkers or chess?

Our walk — and thus my posts on Paris— is about to come to an end.

I do hope to make it back someday, in more favorable garden weather.

Then again this is a big world and there are so many places to see!

Weather Diary, April 26: Hi tbd, Low tbd/ Precip tbd

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

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.