Jardin d'Acclimatation

Tuesday we took Penelope to the Bois de Boulogne, and specifically, its Jardin d'Acclimatation. The Bois de Boulogne is a long story--it is Paris' 2nd largest public park (Vincennes is larger), and thus one of the world's great urban parks--we thought we might take a lot of it in on a days's visit, but concluded rather quickly it would take more like a week. Next time. The Jardin d'Acclimatation started as a zoo, and even included a human zoo (imagine...), but, in the last century, it has been primarily a children's pleasure park. It is immense, larger than any I have seen that are strictly for children, and includes features and attractions too numerous to mention. We spent the better part of a day and barely scratched the surface.

The Bois de Boulogne is nestled between western Paris and
La Defense, just to the north; Camping Paris Ouest is located
in the the Bois de Boulogne, and we have camped there many,
many times, from 1979 to 2009; but never spent any time
looking at the park itself; another visit...

A huge, diverse, children's place

Just inside, the misting from the ground gets
P's attention; later it would be a major struggle
getting her out of them and drying her off

It's not Disneyworld, but then you're never very far from you
know where

There are many, many, many rides, all for
children, but mostly for children over one
meter in height, or more; and pricey, too

We explored the place for an hour or so--mostly the rides--
then had another picnic lunch; and then P again burst  into
song...

A rhinoceros ride settled her down

It was to be another day of a very late nap

Feral, but kid-savvy peacocks roam the place

In the Franco-Prussian War, after the
Emperor was captured and surrendered at the
Battle of Sedan, Paris held out and underwent
a brutal siege; for months pigeons from this
tower were its only means of communication
with the outside world (there was the
occasional, very risky, hot-air balloon, too);
after the city's surrender, Prussian troops
quartered in the Bois de Boulogne

Soon to open, the Louis Vitton Foundation at the Bois de
Boulogne; at first, I thought it was a parody of Frank Ghery's
magnificent Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao; no, it's no
parody; designed by Gehry himself; will be magnificent, too

Everything literally under the shadow of La Defense

Among the newer rides

Penelope's favorite, undoubtedly, was the huge misting/
spraying field--a soft compound floor with jets spraying mist
and sprinkling all over, a basketball court and a half; nice
for a warm day

But she was also pretty captivated by the Guignol puppet
theater next door; the Guignol puppet tradition goes back
to the 18th century; the place was packed

Enthralled; despite (presumably) not understanding a word
of it; it relies heavily on audience participation, and she could
thus get into the spirit of the thing via the responses of the
other children...or maybe she has just learned a lot of French
already

Thus; traditional Guignol has a working-class and moralistic
orientation...fairness, etc.

More characters appear

The villain, who explains his nefarious intentions in detail to
the audience...eliciting boos and other disapprovals

Smack! The villain gets his due

After morality plays, a good trampoline session is always in
order

We eschewed the camel rides

Opting instead for a couple of the kiddie rides for which P
was tall enough...here, of course, the train

And here, wisely, the taxi (an Uber?), as a passenger...
"faster, Rudolfo, faster!"...although she and the driver did
get into a disagreement about who could blow the horn;
all-in-all, it was a pretty great day, although exhausting
for both child and grand-parents

La quatorzième de juillet

So we have read that the French don't refer to it as Bastille Day--violent and unseemly connotations, you know--rather, the 14th of July. OK. D'accord. Anyhow, our Bastille Day started as we were getting ready to leave the apartment for our visit to the Parc de Buttes Chaumont: jets thundering above, part of the air show that accompanies the military parade on the Champs Elysees. (The turning point in the taking of the Bastille was when the army troops arrived and decided to support the Revolution). Clearly it was a holiday...the big stores closed, the thin-margin stores open, the restaurants and cafes and such all open. Quiet in the morning, but then getting more crowded as the day wore on. Our next indication of the national holiday was when we walked into the subway station...

and began noticing all the signs about line and station closures that evening

...and then when we left the Parc Buttes-Chaumont, and found the 19th
Arrondissement Mairie bedecked with flags and military vehicles from the
parade arriving en show

P was impressed with all the big vehicles

All named for famous battles

All-terrain, high mobility vehicle

Snow camo?

Anyhow, we felt relatively safe (greater Paris registers 9 (nine) violent
crimes a day, so we feel pretty safe anyway)

After a late nap and dinner, we boarded bus #69 at Place Leon Blum, hoping to
take it as usual all the way to the Champ du Mars and from there watch the fireworks
extravaganza from the Trocadero and the Tour Eiffel; alas, at the Louvre, the bus
driver announced it was the end of the line and we all had to get off

Happily, we could see the Tour Eiffel sparkling and twinkling from there, the
beginning of the Tuileries, so we just found a place to sit

Enjoyed the sights

Munched on our pastry snacks

And waited for the show to begin

And then, a few minutes past 11, it did begin

Grandma was handling the camera during the fireworks and didn't get many stills, 
but she did get some great video ofthe 2014 Bastille Day fireworks in Paris, to be 
seen shortly at http://youtu.be/309Slekqc5Y

We were concerned about the crowds and transportation--500,000 were expected
on the Champs de Mars that evening--so we left a few minutes early and caught
the #1 Metro back home, P driving us all the way...a great Bastille Day and July
14th!

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

Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace

The Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace street exhibition occupies one whole side of Luxembourg Gardens, and we walked along it looking at each of the scores of stunning photos--contemporary photographs of places where WWI battles occurred--and reading the provided texts. All wars are hideous, but WWI was particularly so. The contrasts between the lands now and the horrors that occurred on them a century ago are manifest in the great photography by Michael St. Maur Shiel. The exhibit is British in origin and will be traveling internationally in the next four years--perhaps coming to a city near you. Don't miss it. Or, just have a good look at the website.

It goes on for hundreds of meters

La Boiselle Crater, in the Somme; much of trench warfare was tunneling beneath the
enemy and then demolishing his trenches and tunnels with tons of high explosives--
the explosions of which could be heard in London 

An aerial view of trenches and craters at Beaumont-Hamel, Somme

Sambre-Oise canal, where the poet Wilfred Owen (and hundreds of others) died a
couple weeks before the war's end..."dulce et decorum est..."

Fort Douamont, Verdun...one of many WWI sites we have visited over the years...
Vimy Ridge being the most recent

A cemetery at Verdun

More of the exhibition

In a side-bar, the future American president, Harry Truman

A moving and eminently worthwhile exhibit