Au Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Paris

Rachel visited the Parc des Buttes Chaumont during her stay with us and came back raving. So it got on to our short-list for non-rainy days...and the quatorzième de juillet dawned bright and fair. Well, cloudy but not raining.

Historique, indeed; developed and opened in Napoleon III's
tenure as yet another ploy to keep the little people happy
and busy...three big Revolutions in 60 years were enough...
anyhow, Paris' great system of public parks is unrivaled,
and among the major half dozen or so, including Butte-
Chaumont, each has a quite different origin and history;
Buttes-Chaumont was mostly a quarry and refuse site until
Napoleon III's architects and landscapers went to work; it's
in the 19th

Its most famous feature is its Temple of the Sybil, a copy of
the Temple of the Vesta at Tivoli, which we must have seen
there but which did not make as big an impression on me as
on many other people (the Vesta temple is one of the most
copied from the Roman world)

Vicki and P at the Temple de la Sybille

Nice views, mostly north; the views of the central city are obscured by trees

Part of another major feature, the pond that encircles the
promontory on which the temple is located

Buttes-Chaumont features one of the first uses of concrete to mimic wood railings,
benches, etc., thus

Of course it's all luxuriantly landscaped

Vicki and P on the suspension bridge designed by Gustave
Eiffel

Another view of the temple and pond

And another picnic in the park!

Not a great day or hour for landscape photography, but the subject was impressive

There is interesting sculpture all around

And waterfalls

And grottoes with waterfalls (all artificial)

Vicki and P...just before the incident at the
waterfall

More sculpture...Pan

And another special ride