Day 27 September 11, 2008
Gosh, I need a vacation. Why don't I take my fourth one in a row? Ow, ok, I just slapped myself on behalf of everyone out there.
I do feel like I've had a series of vacations. The first was with Cylinda in Paris. The second was with her in Normandy. The third was with Britton. And now it's just me taking on this city by myself. It's what I had envisioned years ago when I cooked up this crazy idea of "living" here. Back then, it was supposed to be me alone for a month, taking language classes the whole time I was here. You see how well that turned out.
Anyway, I still have tons of things I want to see before I'm done with this city. My to-do list is still kind of long. So what did I do on the first day of the rest of my vacation? I took a walk. Yes, I'm wilder than you ever thought possible.
For serious, I took a lovely stroll on the Promenade Plantee. This is an elevated park and garden that's built on top of old viaducs. The viaducs themselves now house arty shops. It's called the Viaduc des Arts. Way to be subtle, Paris. The Promenade can be accessed through the Jardin de Reuilly which is a partially elevated gardened itself. It's all wonderful. That's all I'm really trying to say.
I also visited a part of the canals that branch off from the Seine. At the closest point to the Seine is the basin called Pont de l'Arsenal. It was unexpected to see all these boats in the basin with the Bastille column in background. Then I remembered there are tons of boats on the Seine and chalked it up to another disgustingly great view of Paris. Disgusting.