Canal Saint Martin / Parc de la Villette

Canal Saint Martin / Parc de la Villette

Parks are special places in Paris. Whether it’s a small local park carved out of a small neighborhood or a signature destination such as the Jardin du Luxembourg on the Left Bank, they are thoughtfully planned and beautifully maintained. Regardless of the weather or how crowded they are on a given day, they feel at once very personal and private, while at the same time a communal celebration of the opportunity to be outdoors in a beautiful setting.

Located just inside the extreme northeast corner of the Boulevard Periphérique (the main highway that surrounds the city of Paris proper) in the 19^th Arrondissement is the Parc de la Villette. It’s extremely new by Parisian standards (completed in 1991). It was built on land reclaimed from the slaughterhouses of Villette. It’s also the home to the Cité des Sciences et de l’industrie, a huge interactive science museum and planetarium.

We approached the park via an area known as the Canal Saint Martin and the Bassin de la Villette, romantic scenic destinations in their own right. Though it was built between 1822 and 1825 by Napoleon to provide more drinking water to the city of Paris, today it’s a tree-lined stroll along the various locks and metal foot bridges that traverse it. Finally reaching the Place de la Bastille, the canal flows into the Seine and terminates at Port de L’Arsenal, a pleasure boat marina, converted from what used to be part of the moat around the Bastille prison and a commercial port to offload wood for the furniture trade.

 

The basin is a perfect setting to rent a boat to get both exercise and take in the scenery. If you’re feeling less adventuresome there are canal cruise boats that ply the trench. 

There are of course those canal barges that are more akin to house boats (notice the potted plants atop the lower cabin).

The walkways are filled with entertainment from bars and restaurants to a multiplex movie theater. There’s lots of pick up bocce ball, play dates in the children’s playgrounds and lunching along the walkways among friends.

At the Rue de Crimée crossing, the automotive bridge lifts vertically about 20 feet on a cable and pulley system to allow barges to pass. The pedestrian bridge that parallels it was built high enough to let the boats pass.

Bicycles are available for rent, including tandem bikes, just outside the park. There are dedicated bike lanes both inside the park and along the basin that are smooth pavement as opposed to the cobble stone walkways – a lot more comfortable!

The park itself is sectioned off into various areas ranging from carnival-like attractions to simple grassy meadows, from tennis and basketball courts to the museum of science and industry. There’s an elevated walkway that parallels the canal in addition to the water level path to provide a different perspective.

Unfortunately this wonderful city / park environment has not escaped the ravages of graffiti in some areas – even if the colors are quite impressive! But planners have also done an impressive job converting what appear to be remnants of the slaughterhouses into modern offices.

Cimetière de Montmartre

Cimetière de Montmartre 

We visited a number of famous people today, some perhaps not as famous as wealthy… all of them quite dead.

While I wouldn’t think visiting a cemetery to be a way to spend a pleasant afternoon, the Cimetière de Montmartre possesses an undeniable charm. Most of the residents, or their families, were obviously unhappy with the idea of being interred under a simple headstone to mark their final resting place. They required architects, stonemasons, sculptors and structural engineers to create an edifice sufficient to their memory or station in life. Many included chapels for others to pray for their departed souls. A good portion of those interred were indeed worthy of such significant tributes.

Apparently no one wants any of the residents to escape either. The approximately 300 by 500 meter plot is surrounded by a four meter high stone wall with precisely one entrance that’s guarded better than a Florida gated community; except pedestrian traffic is allowed free, unfettered entry.

Cimetière de Montmartre has street signs and a master listing of its famous residents if your intent is to visit someone specific.

Despite all of this intention, the city has grown up around the site over the years including constructing a four lane bridge over one corner that denies quite a number of graves even a remote chance at seeing the sun. 

Since the Montmartre area is quite hilly, the cemetery is terraced in multiple levels requiring a number of stairways and retaining walls to maximize the real estate density.

Below are some of the famous and noteworthy tombs we found during our pleasant stroll. I’d like to thank the residents for being so accommodating, allowing the simple pleasure of marveling in the different ways one can be honored well past their last breath of
Parisian air.

The painter, Des Gas (grave on left) had the good fortune to be buried next to a Polish / Russian princess. I think both of their monuments are fitting to their position and style.

Actually, one of the most tragic in my mind, yet beautifully memorialized is the ballet dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky, depicted in one of his roles, Petruskia. Nijinsky battled severe mental illness most of his life yet was nearly universally acclaimed as the finest dancer of his century.

Hector Berlioz was an ikon of classical composing, having lived 1803 to 1869.

Jacques Offenbach, though a famous classical composer, was perhaps best known the world over for the what was popularized as the "Can Can" associated with the baudy days of the Moulin Rouge and cabarets in general.

No this is not Charlton Heston's grave. It is however the grave of one Daniel Ifla Osiris, of Moroccan descent, a Jewish banker who was decorated by Isabella the Catholic of Spain for his financing the Spanish railroads, and beloved among Parisians for building a Synagogue in Paris.

Pictured at the left is the grave of Alexandre Dumas, fils. He was the illegitimate son of Alexandre Dumas the writer of novels such as "The Three Musketeers". A writer as well, he is most famous for "The Lady of the Camellias", which become the basis for the libretto for the Giuseppe Verdi opera "La Traviata".

I'll leave you with one of the most beautiful and soulful sculptures in the entire cemetery. It was a tribute to Ludmilla Tchérina, a prima ballerina, actress, sculptor, painter and novelist of note in each of these disciplines who died in 2004. 

Montmartre, Grand Boulevards and the covered passageways

Montmartre, Grand Boulevards and the covered passageways

 

Paris, like most big cities, is a study in contrasts, particularly as it relates to “retail therapy”.

A visit to Printemps makes even high-end department stores such as Bloomingdales or Nordstrom seem, well… pedestrian. While I am certainly no index of fashion, I am a bit of a watch aficionado. There is an entire floor at Printemps of boutiques-within-a-store dedicated to the full line of brands such as Piaget, Rolex, IWC, Omega, Tag, Bell & Ross, Cartier, etc. Pick a category from luggage, clothing, shoes, cosmetics, purses, it’s all like that.

Across the street in the areas near Boulevard Haussmann is United Colors of Benetton, as are many other major fashion labels. And we’re not even near the Champs-Élysées.

This is also a fine residential area, a banking center where the banks often look like a foreign embassy and confection shops look like they came right out of the 1920’s. Even the police station looks more like a fine hotel than anything you’d find in the Bronx.

Residences [left]

Bank [right]



Police station [below]

Confectionary from another era.
[left & below]

Then there’s shopping for another type of shopper in the covered passageways sandwiched between buildings under a wrought iron and glass roof. The first, “The Panoramas”, was opened in 1799 and the Jouffroy and Verdeau several decades later in the mid 1800’s.

The passageways are an eclectic collection of fine art restoration, rare books, historic photos, antique toys, postage stamps for the philatelists, café’s, restaurants, a hotel, a wax museum, antique hardware (restored and “original”), oriental rugs, flea market junk, frame shops, bakeries, confectionaries and bars. The patrons are just as eclectic indeed.

But the highlight of the day’s explorations in the passageways was this Norman Rockwell photo opportunity that I’m glad I didn’t miss. Where else would someone paint a centuries old window frame (that had been stripped down to the wood) with paint from a teacup, with an artist’s paintbrush, dressed in a vest and a fedora, all under the watchful eye of the proprietor?

That’s Paris!