We first began walking the Promenade Plantee--aka the Coulee Verte Rene-Dumont--in 2014, when we lived in the 11th. We've done it a few more times since, most picturesquely in 2019. In April 2026, we were just looking for a walk, hoping for great garden and other views, but clearly we were a couple weeks early for the main bloom. Much of the planting is in roses. Still it's a beautiful walk, from the Bastille to Vincennes, 3 miles, the world's first elevated garden, through much of the old bits of the city, built on an old disused railway. We did New York's lower Manhattan imitation two years ago. Different place, different experience, still well worth doing. We'll do the Promenade Plantee again before we leave Paris in May.
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Among the dozens of elite artisans' shops and studios in the Viaduct des
Artes, beneath the Promenade ("why a duck?); they're restoring old art |
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| All in the 12th |
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So many things in Paris you're just not going to see anywhere else;
these adorn the 12th arrondisement police commissariat |
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| Someone's art deco garden |
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| Classic view |
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| Early bloomers |
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| Creche kids on a field trip...always a joy to behold |
