Paris is a beautiful city and we enjoyed a week there to slow down and take our time to get to know her better. The romantic River Seine was just under our windows at our wonderful studio apartment on Île de la Cité, an island in the river that is also the location of the famous Notre Dame Cathedral.
Our convenient location on the Seine made it our top choice for transportation around Paris. We hoped on and off of the Batobus river shuttle boats with a five-day pass. With only about ten minutes between stops on the route, it is a pleasant way to savor the sights along the river.
One of the stops on the Batobus shuttle route is the Jardin des Plantes, a 24-hectare (59 acres) botanical garden (free) that includes a natural history museum (fee). Parisians use the large and beautiful gardens for jogging, outings and botanical education.
Jardin des Plantes was originally known as Jardin du Roi (Garden of the King) as it was first a medicinal garden planted for Louis XIII in 1633.
There were large floral displays of spring plants - myosotis, tulips, wallflowers, and poppies of all colors. In addition to the display gardens are greenhouses, an Alpine garden, a potager, a rose garden and a botanical school.
Even avid gardeners have to eat lunch, especially when there is so much fabulous food around. We jumped on a bateaux (boat) and headed back to our apartment before seeing all of the very large Jardin des Plantes.
Our next stop was lunch at Le Petit Plateau, a little Salon du Thé on the same street, Quai aux Fleurs (yes, flowers) as our apartment. We dined outside to enjoy the beautiful day, river view, and the entertainment on the pedestrian bridge that links Île de la Cité with another island, Île Saint-Louis.
The quiche, salad, wine, bread, dessert - incredible! We had lunch (11 Euros each) there twice during the week. How good? This good...
Story and photos by Freda Cameron; Location: Paris, France; May 2009
11 comments:
Hi Cameron, it just gets better and better! Even the food is beautiful. The Jardin was so full of color, it was nearly blinding, I can only imagine how it must have been in real time. Thanks for sharing with us.
Frances
You must have been in heaven the entire trip.
Good morning Cameron. Your first photo of Paris with the wonderful sky is beautiful. Love the old architecture. We Americans with our young country are always in awe of places with so much history.
Yes, we were in heaven! Paris can be so wonderful.
That quiche was filled with fresh spring veggies! We ate great food (like that) all the time. I came back and had lost 2 lbs. If I ate out all the time for a week in the US, I would probably gain a lot! That's an added bonus that we've always found when in France and Italy. We have never come home with weight gain from our trips.
The Musician and I are off to Big Bloomers in Sanford, NC today to buy plants -- we ripped out invasive variegated ligustrum and made more space.
Later...
Thanks,
Cameron
Oh -- the first photo:
We were standing on the bridge, Pont Neuf at sunset. The sunset was to my back, so this is a view looking east back toward the neighborhood where we were staying.
The sunset photos are amazing, and I'll work those in somehow to a post. I took a lot of zoom photos of the top of Notre Dame to get the individual gargoyle faces, too. Love the Canon SX10 IS camera. It was heavy and not a pocket camera, but well worth the effort to take along.
Cameron
Now this has to be my favorite garden. So pretty! I can say you were most definitely there at peak. Such color!
Spring time in Paris, can't be beat! Now I want to go back...gail
I didn't realise you travelled around using the batobus. Now that's a nice way to see a city!
Enjoying your photos.
Rob
Artistry plus gardening equals not only beautiful gardens but beautiful food!! Maybe that's why I love "the presentation" on my plate! :-) I can tell you are having a wonderful time!!
That food is a work of art onto itself, yum! ;)
Cameron,
More amazing photographs and splendid colors in the Jardin des Plantes. Such perfect timing you and the musician had getting there in spring with all the flowers in such beautiful array.
Love the photo from your apartment and the light glowing on the bridge.
Great job... really enjoying this vicarious tour of Paris.
Meems @ Hoe and Shovel
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