My friend Marilynd told me about the Promenade Plantee, an elevated walkway that runs through the 12th arrondisement* of Paris. Unfortunately, we did not get to do this walk together, but I did it myself several days ago. I found it to be an unheralded (or under-heralded) marvel. It's built on a viaduct that was formerly used for railway tracks. Rather than being torn down (or, worse, just abandoned) when the trains went elsewhere, the viaduct was turned into an "elevated park".
It was more spacious, and much more elaborate, than I expected:
Interestingly, there were signs here and there pointing out that the promenade was for promenading, i.e. walking, but that jogging was acceptable as long as it did not disturb the walkers.
I enjoy photographing buildings, and this elevated path provided great opportunities, with significantly fewer perspective problems and cars-and-pedestrians-in-the-way problems than one encounters at ground level. (Sometimes trees are in the way, but I find that less objectionable.) So there will be a rather high photo-to-text ratio in this post...
I often see buildings that are surprisingly narrow, at least at the edges:
Far out...
Some interesting brickwork:
And some surprisingly elegant rooftop infrastructure!
A little funkier, but still noteworthy:
Not to neglect the wonderful landscaping along the path, here are just some of the beautiful roses I saw (bee included):
I'm going to use that to segue into a little flower display-- I've noticed that the flowers have been blooming here at about they same time that they bloom in Portland (the ones that also grow in Portland, that is). The tulips are all done, but the irises have been out for a little while, and the roses are looking good now. There are a lot of fabulous roses at the Jardin des Plantes:
and some nice purple fiddlehead-like flowers (I really should write the names down) that the bees love!
plus some fun looking white flowers and magenta flowers (ditto above observation):
(The names on the markers at the Jardin des Plantes are always the formal taxonomic names, which I don't find very catchy, but I should be writing them down anyway.)
There are some nice rhodies around, including these at the Rodin Museum gardens. The climate here does have its similarities to Portland's (though with the rainfall distributed differently), so I'm not surprised that a lot of the same plants do well.
And here are some flowers from earlier in my stay. April in Paris; chestnuts in blossom:
These are pretty much done now, as are these flower beds from the Luxembourg Gardens (pictures also taken in April):
But I'm sure there will be summer plantings coming along soon.
*Side note: I think that so far I've done some exploring in every arrondisement except the 11th and 15th. The 15th seems to be mostly residential, on the upscale side, and I'm not sure what's going on in the 11th. Perhaps the same, but less upscale. I guess I will have to find something to see in each of these and go see it!
Bonne soiree,
LeeAnn
What fun to see people walking along the elevated park. The World Without Us describes such a park in NYC, but it started out naturally after a line was abandoned. Wonder what those narrow buildings look like from the inside! Love the row of sensuous gentlemen...what building was that! And the bumblebee with a light grey behind. Really am enjoying your blog!
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