We go walking practically every day, and we see many interesting things and take pictures of them. Sometimes these things are worth a post on their own, but sometimes they just sit on the computer, languishing away. So here are a bunch of mostly disconnected shots from a couple of different days.
One recent sunny day, we went to Passy with the goal of walking on the Petite Ceinture, a converted railbed, and seeing the Maison de Balzac. I was totally excited about seeing the Balzac house - apparently he moved there under an assumed name to escape his creditors - but it was closed for renovations. So we looked at the map and said, what's this long narrow thing in the middle of the Seine? Turns out, it's the Allée des Cygnes, a nice little walkway with trees and people playing with their dogs and kids, right in the middle of the river.
At the west end of the Allée, there's a version of the Statue of Liberty.
Small as Statues of Liberty go, but still a big statue.
Another day, we went to the Parc André Citroën. You may have noticed in some of our previous posts, in early spring, certain trees around here cover themselves with tiny pale pink flowers, smelling heavenly and looking ridiculously beautiful. This park has rows of those trees.
It also has a hot air balloon! You can ride 150 meters in the air! though you actually remain tethered to the ground. We did not go up on the day in question - in any case, I would probably curl up in a ball on the floor of the basket and weep with terror until we returned to sweet sweet Earth - but we did take stupid tourist photos of it.
Look, it's balancing on my finger! I swear, Jeff made me do this.
On another day, we went to see Saint-Sulpice, a church that became one of the major Temples of Reason during the French Revolution in 1793. The Revolutionaries were not fans of Catholicism or any other organized religion, so they invented the atheistic Cult of Reason, which Robespierre later replaced with his Cult of the Supreme Being. There is still a sign over the main door of Saint-Sulpice from when it was the Temple de la Victoire.
If you squint (or the digital equivalent), you can still read:
"Le peuple français reconnoit l'Être suprême et l'immortalité de l'âme"
(The French people recognize the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul)
More random outtakes to come on another rainy day!
Good Lord! Trees with buds, or maybe even blossoms on them. Here in Minnesota it was zero degrees this morning and the snow shows no signs of melting.
ReplyDeleteYep, right now seems to be forsythia and crocus time - plus whatever these trees are. They're very pretty. It makes me miss my garden, but then I remember that my garden is under two feet of snow right now.
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