The city loses its bustle in August, a time when many businesses are closed and people are relaxed. A main street running along the Seine river closes, transformed into “Paris Plage” a pedestrian oriented linear park. Gardens bloom, the Seine takes on a translucent viridian hue.
We start our days with a café crème in the local bar, then pick a direction. Most days we walk, discovering neighborhoods, parks, gardens and interesting streets. If we’re ambitious we take a bus, like a cheap tour through our arrondissement. When we need to be somewhere faster, we descend into the metro and zoom to the other side of town.
These are random photos from just walking around the city, sometimes with a destination – usually a park – but often just things we happen to pass along the way.
Admiring the afternoon view, Parc Montsouris. This lake is the home of a gray heron, some black swans, moorhens and various ducks and geese.
If you have an account, you can take one of these bikes for a cruise, as long as you return it to a docking station. They’re phasing in electrically assisted models, too.
Paris Plage. Normally a noisy strip along a busy street, this space becomes a hangout with a great view.
A temporary climbing wall, taken down when the adjacent street reopens to traffic in the beginning of September
Our morning walk to the café for breakfast
The Seine from the park in the Ile Saint Louis
Annette on the Seine
A perennial border in the Parc Montsouris, 14th arrondissement.
Sculpture – monument in the Luxembourg gardens, off the beaten path
A monument to the guy who invented remote control!