::25-Blog::

April in Paris
Photograph by Amy Toensing
Sweet harmonies of accordion and laughter waft across the green of Square Willette at the Basilique du Sacré Coeur.

Global Appeal
Photograph by Amy Toensing
Soup’s on at the Jardin Nomade, a community garden tucked between two busy streets east of the Bastille. Built on a derelict lot vacant for almost ten years, the garden now offers neighborhood residents small plots for growing vegetables and flowers. Monthly soup dinners featuring recipes from around the world draw more than a hundred people.

Strolling Solo
Photograph by Amy Toensing
A linear lid atop an abandoned 19th-century railroad viaduct, the Promenade Plantée runs almost three miles (five kilometers) through urban neighborhoods in eastern Paris from Place de la Bastille to the Bois de Vincennes. From dawn to dusk, its lush gardens offer walkers a long ribbon of green relief from noise and traffic. Sheltered in the viaduct’s arches are artisans’ workshops and galleries open at street level.

Romance in the Air
Photograph by Amy Toensing
A leafy haven beckons to lovers out for a stroll. The Square du Vert-Galant, perched on the western tip of Île de la Cité in the Seine, was named for the dashing 16th-century king of France, Henri IV, known as the lusty gallant. Today the garden is a popular spot for marriage proposals.

Entanglement
Photograph by Amy Toensing
Wedding train and training wheels mix it up at the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, a place long known for its mixed uses. For 300 years, the park was the site of the Montfauçon gallows. Later it served as a gypsum quarry and then dumping grounds for refuse and “night soils” from surrounding neighborhoods. In the 1860s, Napoleon III transformed the area into a park. Now many couples get married in the 19th-arrondissement city hall (the building in the background), then walk over to the park to have their wedding portraits taken in the landscape of rolling lawns, streams, lakes, and waterfalls.

Artful Musing
Photograph by Amy Toensing
The 17th-century Jardin de Tuileries leads to the western end of massive Musée de Louvre in the center of Paris. Among the first gardens in the city open to the public, it is heavily used by Parisians, who stroll among its formal gardens and the elegant Maillol outdoor sculpture yard, meet in its cafés, and enjoy its public chairs, famous for their comfort.

Temple With a View
Photograph by Amy Toensing
From the Temple de Sibylle atop a rocky peak at the heart of Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, couples get a fine view of Paris’s northwestern neighborhoods and the park’s expansive lawns and lake. Buttes-Chaumont showcased the technological capabilities of the mid-19th century. Architects and engineers used dynamite and reinforced concrete to create the illusion of natural scenery, reshaping the quarried landscape into undulating slopes, large caves (complete with artificial stalactites), and a large lake surrounding the butte. The Roman-style temple built to crown the butte adds a mythological feel to the site.

Versatile Playground
Photograph by Amy Toensing
Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, the square in front of Paris’s City Hall, is not only a center for city government but a social center as well. In the winter, the city installs a skating rink in the square; and sometimes in summer, an artificial beach, complete with sand and volleyball courts, or a putting green and sports area for children. In 1998, a huge TV screen occupied the square to give Parisians a big view of the World Cup soccer games.

A Sit-Down Affair
Photograph by Amy Toensing
Benches beckon on the Pont des Arts, a pedestrian bridge across the Seine, testifying to the Parisian belief that the human backside is a dimension that should never be forgotten. Many public places in Paris harbor benches and, often, movable chairs that encourage rest and sociable lingering.

Tree City
Photograph by Amy Toensing
Mature chestnut trees tower over the Place Dauphine, a small triangular plaza on Île de la Cité. Some 483,000 trees of 120 species green the public squares, streets, parks, and gardens of Paris—the fruit of efforts over the past century that continue today: Each year the city plants 2,400 new trees.

Play Day
Photograph by Amy Toensing
Sweeping green playing fields at the Jardin de Reuilly stay closed, like many other park lawns in Paris, through early spring; signs say “pelouse au repos,” or lawn at rest. Then one day in April, the lush expanses open to an exuberant public—for picnics, soccer, or simple, giddy soaring with Grandma.

Evening Pleasures
Photograph by Amy Toensing
One of the few Paris parks open all day and night, the Parc du Champ de Mars welcomes humans and their canine companions. On hot summer nights, the giant geometric lawns draw Parisians from all quarters who spread out their blankets under the lights of the Eiffel Tower for evenings of music, dog play, and alfresco dining.

Checking Out
Photograph by Amy Toensing
Groups of men, many of them immigrants from Morocco, gather to play checkers and socialize in Square Léon Serpollet, an 18th-arrondissement park surrounded by dense housing. Situated on the site of an old workshop belonging to the inventor of the steam tricycle, the terraced park has something for everyone: herb and vegetable gardens, fountains, Ping-Pong tables, children’s play equipment, and an outdoor reading area in a quiet patch of woods.