Botanical garden

The Paris botanical garden is one of my favorite gardens in Paris. It's large (28 hectares), never too crowded, offers a lot of shade when it's too hot, and has a lot to offer in terms of plants (including two giant green houses) and animal life. In one of its ends there is a museum (sheltered in the building that you can see in the background) with lots of interesting stuff (including the French Mineralogy Museum, where I was lucky enough to photograph the French Crown jewels once).

Already Fall (Autumn)?!

I had a walk in a Paris garden yesterday and I noticed that there are already many leaves on the ground. I then saw that many tree leaves were turning yellow everywhere even though it's only August 10! I don't know why, but it's really early in the season - probably a result of the current bad weather. Have a great Sunday.

Secret garden...

Even in a very busy city like Paris you can manage to find some peace. Like in the secluded garden of Le Mandarin Oriental, where I had the opportunity to take a few photos yesterday morning. It was raining, unfortunately, so I could not sip my drink outside, but I could take cool photos... It's been a long time since I've made a little Animoto, so here you go; it's short, but gorgeous and you can see the amazing one piece marble var, the glass curtain and a few other things that make this place pretty exceptional (and this is NOT paid advertising!).

Paris Belvedere

It may be an Italian word, but we do have a "belvedere" in Paris, that is a very high point from where you can see a 360° panorama. I went there yesterday and it was the perfect day for it, for the sun was really shining. I'm not telling you right know where it is, but I will later this week... Hint: it used to be a previous ice "factory" !

Beautiful Beethoven

It's been a pretty busy weekend in Paris (demonstration wise...) and there is nothing like a little music to soothe everyone (well I'm not so sure it works with ALL Beethoven's pieces, but that's the only music related photo I have in stock at the moment!) I took this shot at the Luxembourg gardens in which you can come across many sculptures and busts. This one is by Bourdelle, a very famous sculptor (which museum I strongly encourage you to visit if you come to Paris). Last piece of info: the European National Anthem is by Beethoven...

Animals you don't need to walk!

This Saturday I went to Le jardin d'acclimatation, a small amusement park located in Le bois de Boulogne in the 16th arrondissement. Like in all amusement parks you can find merry-go-rounds, roller coasters, car racing, shooting stands... but it's also an educational park where children can see animals, attend various workshops and... walk through unexpected exhibits, like these funny shaped animals designed by Guili Guili and made of recycled metal. Here is the one I thought was the cutest, but I photographed and filmed several other ones, that are just as cute! Have a look on the PDP Youtube channel.

Not your garden-variety garden!

Did you ever hear of André Le Nôtre? If you came to Paris, you probably did, for he his the one who designed the gardens of Versailles, of Chantilly, Vaux-le-Vicomte and of a few other castles and places like the Tuilerie gardens, where I took this photo. To be honest, it's not so much the gardens that interested me when I took this photo (even if they are beautiful), but the juxtaposition of the two tourists and the bust of André! 

Reading in Le square de Cluny

If you happen to wander at the corner of boulevard Saint Germain and boulevard Saint Michel, by the Cluny museum, I strongly recommend you take a walk inside the square de Cluny, a half medieval/half modern garden where you can barely hear the traffic noise. I went there for the first time this morning and took this cool photo. I think I should have used it for our June theme day "tranquility"!

Cycle racing in Paris

Don't go thinking the Tour de France started earlier this year, this cyclist is probably just an amateur that I caught on "film" yesterday in the Bois de Boulogne. The Bois de Boulogne is a 3.3 square mile park that borders the west side of Paris in which you can find several lakes, restaurants and even a racecourse. That is precisely around this racecourse (called l'hippodrome de Longchamp) that the cyclists train. FYI several buses allow you to go to the Bois de Boulogne, which is a nice location for a picnic for instance.

Why run?

Here is another shot I took at Parc des Buttes Chaumont. There were a bunch of girls playing sort sort of games (I guess tag - what we call "jouer au chat" in French) and I waited for the perfect moment to shoot. I actually wanted to have the quiet guy by the tree and the running girl in the same photo ;-) Silly, I know...

Last sunny days...

In Paris we have no sea, but we have ponds! And nice quiet areas around them to get some rest in the middle of the afternoon. I happened to be passing at Les Tuileries Garden today and took these photos (yes, for once, I'm breaking the holy rule of CDP and posted two photos, because I like both of them). FYI, these was a clay quarry for tiles there before a Palace and an Italian style garden were built by Catherine de Médicis at this location around 1560. It was opened to the public in 1667, and became a public park after the French Revolution in 1789. Update: FYI, have a look at what "Caro", the owner of "Un jour Un sourire" did with these two photos.

My own private garden...

Today - and this has nothing to do with the surprise I mentioned yesterday - I would like to share with you one of my "secret" addresses in Paris... This is the Hotel Salomon de Rothschild in the heart of the 8th arrondissement (not far from Les Champs Elysées). Right in front of it, there is a secluded garden known by a bunch of happy fews - which I'm part of since last week!... where you can  lay in the sun (and in the grass). Just for you, my dear PDP visitors, I'll  disclose the address ! It's at  12, avenue de Friedland (Metro Charles de Gaulle). I'm not kidding, it's really worth the trip...

Time to lose weight!

This scale, that I photographed in the Luxembourg gardens is always a mystery to me. Why on earth would someone weigh himself/herself there?! Mind you, I never saw anyone step on it, so I guess they are not that successful  ;-) Anyway... For your information, like I already mentioned it, French people gain more and more weight. According to the main study on this topic, 14% of French people are obese, against only 8% in 1997... As for me, I have a good 5 kilos to lose by the beginning of the summer!

The last flakes?

Here you go! I took this photo this morning on my way to work (well I made a little detour because I knew I had good chances of taking a blockbuster shot!) while the snow had not yet melted. You may have recognized the Luxembourg Gardens with its little kiosk on the left, the Senate at the very back and its big trees. The garden is actually private(!), but open to the public - for it belongs to the Senate, which is in charge of its maintenance. It was "built" (or for? I'm not sure) by Marie de Medicis between 1614 et 1631. More here (French) and here.

Resting in Les Tuileries

I went to Les Tuileries Gardens last night for a professional event that took place in what they call "L'orangerie éphémère" (The temporary orangerie). I did not find anything interesting to photograph there, but on the way out, I felt like taking [a photo of!] these two ladies, having some rest by the pond after a hot day (you can see the storm coming up in the sky). FYI, les Tuilerie gardens are said to be the first public gardens in Paris. Apparently it was Louis the XIVth, after he commissioned famous gardener André Le Notre to design them, who decided that Parisians would be granted to right to walk through them every year on June 24!

Musée en plein air

I went to two exhibition halls this morning, hoping to bring back photos for you. Tough luck: cameras were forbidden in both of them! So, I got even and went to the open air sculpture museum, on the left bank, in the Tino Rossi gardens. I did not know of this place actually, I found it by coincidence because I was looking for joggers to photograph. There, I had both! BTW, the sculpture in the foreground is by François Stahly and it's called "Neptune II", don't ask me why...

Really Just Married!

Between June and September you find a lot of newly weds in the streets of Paris. They are generally followed by a photographer trying to catch their best profile ;) These two were no exception - and I was not the "official" photographer (as a matter of fact I often receive emails from people who plan to get married in Paris and want to be photographed!). FYI, there were 266,500 marriages in 2007, a pretty stable rate within the last 10 years (with the exception of 2000 of course...)

Hi there!

I love this photo, not only because it shows this giant head by sculptor Louis Derbré (it is called Le Prophète and was made after an Egyptian statue) but because of the little lady at its base. I took this photo in the Luxembourg gardens, just like the one of yesterday. You may wonder what a giant sculpture is doing in these gardens?! Well it's part of the Artsena exhibit, a yearly art exhibition organized by the Senate (which is also located in the Luxembourg gardens).

Close encounter of a weird type!

Did I happen to witness an astronauts convention by coincidence? Did France suffer a Nuclear accident that only I was aware of?! All wrong, these weird little white men are simply harvesting honey from the Luxembourg gardens beehives... For yes, as some of you already know, we still have beehives in the middle of Paris (there and in the Georges Brassens park) that are used by the members of a society that was founded in 1856. By the way, if you're around the area on September 20 and 21, you'll have the opportunity of buying this honey ;)

Oooops!

Who said only dogs drop things on the ground in Paris, humans do too LOL! I hope this ice cream did not belong to a child whose mother said "It serves you right, I told you to pay attention. No, I'm not going to buy you a new one!" That's all for today. Not a very typical Paris photo - except for the pavement of course, which is part of the jardins du Palais Royal! - but a one that seems to say: "It's the end of the summer!".