Just thought I%26#39;d pose a question to see if anyone wanted to share: what%26#39;s your single favorite walk/stroll in Paris?
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Single favorite, as in one........ I think that it may be the Marais on a Sunday. Starting at the Richard Lenoir market, then heading over to the musee Picasso, going to the rue des Rosiers for a falafel, then taking the rue des Francs Bourgeois to the Place des Vosges. (although I also love that neighborhood on Sat with all of the art galleries open, but the market isn%26#39;t there and the rue des Rosiers is not as authentique with all the kosher places closed.)
From the Louvre, through the Tuileries, with a stop for a coffee at one of the buvettes to the Place de la Concorde across the bridge and along the boul. St Germain to the Cafe de Flore for a light lunch and then to the Cluny to sit in peace before the Lady and the Unicorn. This walk could continue to Luxembourg gardens and we often abridge the itinerary (no pun intended) by taking the Pont des Arts from the Louvre and down the rue de Seine to St Germain des Pres.
A note on the buvettes in the Tuileries, this is a popular place for French Deputies to meet their mistresses, as it is casual enough to feign having %26quot;just bumped into%26quot; one another while the deputy was taking a break from the Nat%26#39;l Assembly across the street.
Looking forward to reading what the others have to say...
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Sorry...that%26#39;s like asking a parent which child they love more. Usually we have no per-set route or itinerary. But one particular stroll that we do take often is along the Left Bank quias, down along the Seine, from the Pont de Sully to Pont des Arts---down beside the river, under the bridges, past the facades of Notre Dame, Institut de France, Louvre, across Pont des Arts, through the Cour Carree out onto the cour Napoleon. It%26#39;s especially pleasant on a warm summer evening. And though I%26#39;m ordinarily not an early riser, we%26#39;ll often do so and begin a day by making our way to the Luxembourg Gardens, picking up croissant, pastery and coffee as we go and stretch out between a couple of those great metal chairs and watch the small army of gardeners and groundskeepers prepare the gardens for another day. I swear thay%26#39;ve got one guy whose only job seems to be to go through the gardens re-aligning the chairs and another guy whose only job appears to be walking around with a clipboard, waiting for the sprinklers to come on and go off and making a notation on his form.
Another stroll you can take is to start up near the Place Stalingrad end of the Canal Saint Martin and walk south along the canal until it goes into the tunnel and strike out west into the Marias, poking around in these neighborhoods as you go. I suppose you could have a destination in mind--Place des Vosges, Musee Picasso, Musee Carnavalet, Centre Pompidou, et al--but it really isn%26#39;t necessary.
If you%26#39;re looking for something a little different and a bit off of the beaten path, take yourself down to Place d%26#39;Italia and start working your way south into the Butte-aux-Cailles neighborhood. This is a solidly working class Parisian neighborhood that seems %26#39;..apart..%26#39; from the rest of Paris. There isn%26#39;t really any great art or architecture to be found here though. If you work your way to the west, toward Mouton-Duvernier and Alesia, there are a couple of street and flea markets there at various times during the week.
Every once in a while, we%26#39;ll simply pick a Metro ligne near to whereever we are and ride it to a stop we%26#39;ve never gotten off at and simply poke around within that neighborhood to find out what it has to offer.
You can use some of the self-guided walking tours that are available as rough guides---but take the time to just wander. Your %26#39;..perfect..%26#39; Parisian parc, square or cafe is just around that next corner on your right or left.
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You know what KDK, I think they%26#39;ve cloned that guy with his clipboard and put him in parks all over the city. He has a whistle, too, and blows it to kick us out in the evenings, or when the kids are having too much fun.
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i like a lot doing shopping on sundays in le marais, it%26#39;s nice, little streets, and i go when the weather is sunny so it%26#39;s great, i find every time shops in little streets. and because now i have a dog, bois de boulogne is nice lol :) it%26#39;s a big park with 2 lakes. but i dont do lots of walks just to walk, just sometimes with friends but rarely. but i like a lot to do shopping alone, i have when friends come with me, and for this i go to le marais or st germain, rue de rennes, rue du four, and i like to discover some nice little shops with great objects.
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You know what KDK, I think they%26#39;ve cloned that guy with his clipboard and put him in parks all over the city
i did not understand what it meant. which guy are you talking about? i mean i understand word by word lol but after reading kdk answer i did not understand
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The guy in the Luxembourg gardens who takes care of the gardening. It was a joke... we have a lot of park guardien issues in our neighborhood so I thought it amusing that even the tourists kind wonder what they do all day.
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I%26#39;m not sure what the guys in your neoghborhood parcs are like, but park attendants tend to be like that the world over. At the Luxembourg, a line of police and groundskeepers %26#39;sweep%26#39; through the parc just at sunset herding everyone out the gates. The worst of these attendants used to be the matrons who patrolled along the Champ de Mars. They seemed to hide behind the tress; then when some poor unsuspecting soul would step out onto the grass, they appeared, as if by magic, blowing their whistles and waving their arms. In recent years, they%26#39;ve relaxed th rules a bit but...given the choice between facing a phalanx of fully armed and equipped riot police and just one of these matrons...I%26#39;d take the riot police as the kinder, gentler alternative EVERY time.
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ok thank you
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Thanks for all the replies. I was hoping that I might bring back some good memories for you all in answering this question. It certainly brought back some great memories for me.
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