Lost in Paris

Paris, France
September 25-30


Serendipity: An aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident

My Goal upon embarking on this journey to Walden Pond was to explore the woods with the intent of getting lost.
Henry David Thoreau

In the days after Ted and Gina left, Shaun and I had no plans, no agenda, just a vague idea that we wanted to enjoy Paris and its surroundings a little differently. We knew we wanted to do one day trip and we knew we wanted to see more of this amazing city so we just decided to take each day as it came and see what happened. Some of our favorite moments of the entire trip have happened when we took a "wrong turn" or made a split decision to do something different than what we had planned.

One of our favorite days like this happened a few weeks ago when we headed to the Saxe-Breteuil market around lunchtime on a Wednesday. We took the metro out to the Segur stop and walked down the street, looking forward to exploring this wonderful market. Unfortunately, the Saxe-Breteuil market is on Thursday, not Wednesday. So there we were, standing on a very empty street corner, trying to decide what to do. We thought that maybe we could get to the Monge market in time to at least get lunch, but it was a crap shoot since many of the markets close down early if the day isn't busy. We decided to chance it and walked back to take the metro in the opposite direction. As we rode the subway, I mentioned to Shaun that there was a big garden near there called the Jardin des Plantes. I vaguely remembered something about a zoo as well.

We got off the metro at the Monge stop and as we expected, most stands were closing down. We decided to just grab some samosas for lunch. These little hand made savory Indian turnovers are perfect for a grab and go lunch, and since it was late in the day, the young woman who ran the stand threw in some extras. We stopped by a little convenience store to get drinks and asked if the Jardin des Plantes was nearby. The clerk pointed us in the right direction and we walked just a few blocks before entering the beautiful gardens. Our intent was to hang out in the gardens, but when we realized the zoo was right in the middle we decided to splurge and spend the 9 Euro to check it out.

The Menagerie (zoo) was fabulous! It is one of the oldest zoos in the world, dating back to 1794 and it had everything from Kangaroos to Camels to Panthers. Even better, at least three of the animals had just had babies so we got to see a baby Yak, a baby Camel and a bunch of baby goats. As we walked through the zoo we realized that it is bordered on one side by the Jardin des Plantes, and on the other by the Seine! How surreal to be looking at a baby camel with the River right behind us. We probably spent two hours hanging out at the zoo. A happy accident indeed!

Mountain Goat chillin on his perch

Orangutan just hanging out in Paris

Yay! Baby Camel! Don't mind all the gunk on his back. I'm assuming his parents were spitting on him, because, well that's the best scenario I can come up with!


We had a similar fun day last week when we decided to go check out the Promenade Plantee. It had been really hot in Paris and we thought it would be nice to find a shady park where we could read our books and relax. The Promenade Plantee is an elevated walk that starts near the Bastille and runs about 3 miles. It used to be a railroad, but that rail line shut down in 1969 and they renovated it and put in the gardens in the 80s. Shaun was a little wary of this one. I guess it didn't sound like it would be all that interesting but it was great. You have to know how to find the entrances because its fairly well hidden, but once you get up there it's like a whole other world above the city. There were fruit trees and flowers and little bamboo forests. There were benches everywhere and folks were just sitting and reading or chatting with friends.

Shaun in one of the little Bamboo forests in the Promenade Plantee

Loved this crazy building! The promenade goes right through it!

Reuilly Park where all the locals were hanging out in the Sun. We really felt like locals that day.

We walked the Promenade until we got to the Park Reuilly which had a big green sloping lawn and lots of shady spots. We laid out our towel with everyone else and read our books all afternoon. Finally we decided to head out. I had heard there was a guy who sells really fresh oysters from a stand nearby so we tried to find him, but we had no luck. We could have just jumped on the metro then, but there was a bridge Shaun had read about online and it was nearby so we decided to go find it. Along the way we turned a corner at a stadium and saw hundreds of strangely dressed people and LOTS of photographers hanging out by the entrance. It quickly became apparent that we had stumbled on a fashion week event! We didn't really have any interest in the event, but we thought the whole scene was really bizzare and cool so we jumped up on a low wall and watched the scene unfold for a while.

Crazy fashion week event. At first we thought that was Lady Gaga, but upon closer view we changed our minds.

After that we continued our journey to the bridge, walking through Bercy Park. As we passed through the park we watched some kids doing tricks at a skateboard park and then we came upon what looked like a troupe of circus performers. One was tightrope walking between trees, one was practicing with a whip and one was juggling. Any other time I would have found that strange but by this point in the day I was ready for anything. Finally we reached the bridge. The Simone de Beauvoir footbridge is one of the newest in Paris, dating back to just 2006. It is only for pedestrians and cyclists and it is very clean and modern looking. It leads from Bercy park to the Mitterand Library and it is a fitting way to view the library, which is a series of four buildings that are all glass and were built to look like open books! All things considered, it was an absolutely amazing day. A few vague plans and few missed turns and we saw things most people will never see in Paris. We were both tired and happy by the time we got home.

The Passerelle Simone de Beauvoir with the Mitterand Library in the background

Not everything is unplanned though. One day we decided to go to the city of Reims, which is the home of Champagne. We looked up some info on tastings on Trip Advisor and chose to go to a tasting at the GH Martel Champagne company. We made our train reservations and a reservation at Martel. They could only take us for 4PM so we had the morning and afternoon to explore Reims. The big draw there is the cathedral. Construction began in 1211 and although it was badly damaged in World War I, it is still a sight to behold. The best part of the cathedral is the stained glass windows. Although some of them date back to the 1300's I was really amazed by the more contemporary windows. My two favorites were the Champagne windows (Jacques Simon, 1954) and the Marc Chagall windows from 1974. The Champagne windows were a series of three windows that showed in intricate stained glass the Champagne making process. If you looked hard enough, you could even see the names of the villages that made the wine. The Marc Chagall windows were beautiful blue ethereal windows depicting biblical stories like the story of Abraham and the resurrection of Christ. I wish the pictures could do the windows justice but its hard to capture that kind of beauty.

The Champagne Windows.

The Marc Chagall Windows. So beautiful and ghostly.

After touring the cathedral we walked around Reims for a while. The city was founded by the Gauls in 80 BC and was under Roman control as of around 20 BC. There are still some old Roman Ruins around the city so its great fun to walk around and explore. We checked out the sights and then walked around looking for something to eat for lunch.

After a quick sandwich in a park, we were ready for our Champagne tour. For just 10 Euro we took a really cool tour of the Martel Champagne cellars. The cellars under Reims were originally limestone and chalk mines that were created by the Romans and were co-opted hundreds of years later to house Champagne by the local vineyards. The Martel tour took us way down below the city to their old cellars to show us the process of making Champagne and the history of how it has changed over the years. That was followed by a tasting of three of their champagnes. It was a lovely way to end our day in Reims!

Shaun in the Champagne Cellar in Reims

The old school Champagne making equipment







Another day we ventured outside Paris to the Bois de Vincennes. This is a huge park on the outskirts of Paris with miles and miles of trails for running, walking and biking, similar to the Bois de Boulogne. We rented bikes using the Paris Velib system. Velib is a bike rental program run by the city. For just 1.70 you can rent a bike for a day and as long as you return it within 30 minutes there are no other charges. Even if you take it for longer it is very reasonable. We picked up our bikes at one end of the park and rode for two hours along the paths and trails. We stopped a few times to check out the scenery and eventually came out at the other end of the park where we just dropped off our bikes at another Velib stop and headed home.

Shaun picking up a bike at one of the many Velib Stations in Paris

There are loads of things to see in Paris, but one of my personal favorite days was the day I got my hair cut. It was one of those days when Shaun and I had separated to do different things. I was headed up to read in at the Luxembourg gardens when I passed a hair salon with one woman stylist who was unoccupied. I had been thinking about doing this for weeks, so I had researched a few words that I might need, but I had no intention of doing it that day until I passed the salon. I went in and asked in French if she could cut my hair right now. She said yes and started to ask what I wanted. She spoke no English so I was glad I could remember some of the words I had looked up. We did a good job of communicating with each other and I was really pleased with the cut. When I got home later that day, Shaun started to say something and then stopped mid-sentence. "Did you get your Hair Cut???" he said incredulously. It was a very proud moment for me.

So if I had to sum up todays post, I would say its about Serendipity. It's about opening yourself up to possibilities by just letting things unfold. If you're in a new city and you take a wrong turn, don't go back, just see where that wrong turn leads you. If you get a sudden urge to do something that is a little outside your comfort zone, do it! You will probably end up glad you did. It may seem silly to you, but I know that I will always be a little bit proud of myself when someday years from now I can say, "One day I was walking to a park in Paris and I just decided out of the blue that I was going to get my hair cut. So I did."

Shaun and I getting a drink at a place called La Cremerie. I had just gotten my haircut.