Parc de Villette, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, et Canal St. Martin

More beautiful, sunny days in Paris = more parks. Danielle and I decided to visit two huge parks in the north-east corner of Paris. We started at Parc de Villette, which houses the science museum, 360º Movie Theater, and huge industrial modern statues. When we got off of the metro, we walked straight into a “Cow Party” (Fete des Vaches). It was an organization trying to teach kids to eat three servings of dairy a day. They had a pen of cows, a stage of cows, and free samples of milk and cheese. We got on line twice for all of the samples, they were delicious! Plus- we’re college students and can’t turn down free food. Then we walked around the parc, which was mostly giant lawns filled with Parisians sunbathing and huge metal statues. Check out the picture carefully because it looks like a giant clear bubble, but is actually the 360° movie theater made out of reflective metal.

After frying in the sun, we headed to another shadier park, known for its cliffs and rolling hills. It’s hard to imagine but Parc des Buttes Chaumont actually has a giant man-made cliff in the center and tons of steep hills. Everyone was sunbathing here too. We climbed to the top of the cliff and peered out on to the Paris skyline. It was cool being so close to Sacre Coeur and getting to see it up close. We descended and headed to find some dinner and wine for our evening plans on Canal Saint Martin.

Once again, as college students, we were jumping for joy when we found a Leader Price grocery store on our way to the canal. Leader Price supplies food to regular grocery stores at highly discounted prices. But a Leader Price store is the cheapest way to buy food in Paris- and they are really hard to find. We stocked up on sandwiches, cheese, pretzels, cookies, wine, and fruit for under 5 Euro each. It was literally insane. We bought a .34 box of cookies and a .29 bag of mixed nuts.

With a stuffed shopping bag in hand- we headed to Canal St. Martin for a girls night picnic on the water. Canal St. Martin is in a cute neighborhood with little boutiques and restaurants, but once the sun sets, the banks of the canal fill up with picnicking Parisians and the wine starts flowing. We stayed until people started packing up and heading off to the clubs and it was a great night!

*We walked by another canal, Bassin de la Villette. This canal has two movie theaters that face each other and 1 movie ticket will also get you a boat ride to the other side of the canal. Cool concept!