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!

Jour des Parcs

It was sunny, warm and I desperately needed to get rid of my milky winter skin, so I decided to take a hike over to the western outskirts of Paris to visit the Parc de Boulogne-Billancourt. Ignoring my guidebook, I got off at the metro stop nearest to me, but not centrally located in the park. Well after a 30 minute trek passed a driving range, horse race track and forest, I arrived at a small lake. Completely unable to find a map or reference point, I collapsed and took an hour long nap in the sun. After my rest, I began walking again and ended up outside the park. This would not do, so I dove back into the forest and somehow managed to find the giant lake that is on the center of every park map. It took almost another hour to walk around the lake, stopping to take photos of the boats and eating some lunch. I was supposed to find the Bois de Boulogne, a villa designed by Napolean or maybe one of the museums in the park, but I was exhausted and I saw a sign for the metro that I needed to catch back- so au revoir park! Another time- probably with a bike or car!

But my day in the sun was not over- I planned to stop at another park before heading home, Parc Monceau. This park had an entirely different energy than the previous one. It is enclosed by giant golden gates and is smack in the middle of a very chic Parisian neighborhood. It was late in the afternoon and all of the local kids were playing excitedly in the park because it was the start of their two week vacances (which means- Paris empties out of Parisians and fills up with tourists). I sat on a bench in the sun and read my book. After a while the older man next to me struck up conversation. He was an author and history scholar (graduated from Sarbonne) and loved talking about politics- was I the wrong person to start chatting with or what? So we talked about travel, America, Europe, the volcano, and a few other things. He was very nice and gave me his business card and told me to tell my French department to make it a required book. It’s about the Vietnam war- so we’ll see...

As I walked home, I stopped at Eric Kayser and had an outrageously good chocolate cookie. Then I wandered passed the St. Augustine church, Rue Haussman (commercial boulevard aka Time Square status for shopping), and stopping to rest in the Tuileries. (For a point of reference- none of these places are near each other and my feet were aching- but cookies work miracles.) I managed to make it to the metro and home for dinner.

Just as I’m sitting here writing this, I have discovered that Parc Boulogne is 2,137 acres and I completely forgot to stop at the Chinese pagoda emporium, which was a recommended site near Parc Monceau. It’s funny because I googled it last night and stopped by this morning- but the one I stopped at turned out to be a movie theatre. The real one is at the corner of Rue Rembrandt and Rue de Courcelles. Oops!