Tag: Walks

The Best Of Paris by Night: On the Pont des Arts

Last Thursday my husband and I went for a walk to the Pont des Arts so as to enjoy the very special atmosphere of this pedestrian bridge at night and to take pictures of the amazing views on Paris one can admire from there.

The walk from the Rue Lacépède took about twenty five minutes through the Quartier latin. We had dinner in a good and very welcoming Italian restaurant just before arriving to the Ponts des Arts in the rue Mazarine, Amore & Gelosia: the Calamari fritti were excellent ; the pasta were good too and generously served ; and the waitresses were smiling and thoughtful!

We left the restaurant at night and kept walking towards the Seine. A few meters further in the rue Mazarine we noticed another restaurant with a pleasant outdoor terrace which could have been another nice place where to have dinner: it is called the Bistro Mazarin and is located at the corner of rue Mazarine and rue Jacques Callot. We have not tasted the food but it seems to be a traditional French Bistro and the terrace looks really great!

Pont des Arts-Paris-Rue Mazarine
Pont des Arts – Paris – Bistro Rue Mazarine

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The Marais Off the Beaten Track: A walk in the Jewish Area in Paris

Jewish area Marais Paris- Rue des Ecouffes
Jewish area Marais – Paris – Rue des Ecouffes

As well as the Ile Saint Louis, The Jewish area in the Marais is one of my favourite areas where to have a walk in Paris. For more than twenty years I regularly go for a walk there and even if the area has changed, even if I miss the closing of some local stores (such as Goldenberg for instance) and the opening of trendy fashion shops in place of them, I think that the ‘Rue des Rosiers’ and its surroundings are still very authentic and charming, almost as authentic as they used to be.

And this will last as long as some historical flagship stores or buildings remain there as those stores are part of the soul and history of the Jewish area: Finkelsztan, Chez Marianne, Le café des Psaumes, La Boucherie Norbert, … and of course the Jewish school in the Rue Pavée and the Synagogues, whether visible or hidden. The most important of them is in the rue des Tournelles, at the Eastern boundary of the area, and is the second largest synagogue in Paris.

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La Promenade Plantée: A Green and Unusual Walk in Paris!

La promenade plantée: the first green space of this kind

The ‘Promenade Plantée’ in Paris, also known under the name of ‘La Coulée Verte’, was created in 1988 and is the first green space of this kind: A way of 4,5kms with a lot of plants, a walking path and a bicycle path on part of it was built on a former railway which was unused since 1969. No doubt that the designers of the Highline in New York (opened in 2009) drew their inspiration from it!

Promenade Plantee - Paris - Flowers and pool
Promenade Plantée – Paris – Flowers and pool

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