A Walk in the Parc: Parc Montsouris, April 20, 2023

Paris, April 20, 2023

A Walk in the Park

For today's adventure, Jeff selected the Parc Montsouris. Our little Quiet Corners of Paris book describes the parc as covering "ten hectares of sprawling lawns peppered with century-old trees, plus flower beds and clumps of shrubbery, and the requisite Haussmann-style appurtenances: lakes, waterfalls, bridges, a tunnel, sculpture." The parc did not disappoint!

Getting there entailed a bit of adventure, however. We have taken to having a slow morning - sleeping a bit late, lingering over breakfast, and generally getting out of the apartment late in the morning. We walked to the Metro stop near the Musée d'Orsay. The ticket machines were out-of-order, and when we went to an agent, she said, "I cannot sell you a ticket. Our machines are down, but my colleagues know the problem; the gates are open." So off we went in search of the "C" train to take us to the Notre Dame stop, where we would change to a "B" train that would take us to the park. Because the computers were down, we had no idea which train was which. At one point, a train stopped; Jeff asked a woman standing at the doorway if it was the "C" train and got on when she indicated yes. The doors began to close before I could get on, and Jeff instinctively thrust his hand between the doors, which closed over his hand and would not open. He and the woman were trying desperately to get the doors to open. I was convinced the train would speed off, leaving me in one place and carrying Jeff to another. All of these horrid thoughts were streaming through my head in the space of about a minute, of course. Finally, the door opened, and Jeff jumped out. We started to walk back to our bench when I noticed that his hand was bleeding. Fortunately, I had a bunch of tissues in my pocket, which we used to staunch the bleeding (which was coming from a minor scrape on the back of his hand - but with his thinned blood, it seemed to bleed forever). We had a temporary fix and decided that we would seek out a pharmacy when we arrived at our destination and get some antiseptic cream and a box of bandaids.

The rest of the train ride was anticlimactic. I was shaken, but he was stoic.

Waiting for the train

Jeff on the train

I don't have pictures to document this crazy ending to our train adventure (thank goodness), but at some point, the computer issue was resolved, and the gates were all closed as we got off the train at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. Since they did not sell us a ticket, we had no ticket to feed into the turnstile to open the turnstile to get out of the station. We tried a number of possibilities and ended up taking to our knees and crawling through the turnstile. Trust me, it wasn't my most attractive look. Ha!

As we went in search of the pharmacy, we paused for a moment to take a seat on a retaining wall and catch our breath after having walked up a steep hill and down the other side. It was then that Jeff discovered the aforementioned tunnel.

We found our pharmacy, asked in our halting French for an antibiotic (when we meant antiseptic), and were told one needed a prescription for an antibiotic and when Jeff showed the pharmacist his bloody hand, she replied, "O! Antiseptique!" and pointed us in the right direction. Antiseptic spray in hand, bandaids in hand, and a small bottle of hand sanitizer (which I kept forgetting to put into my coat pocket), we returned to our spot by the tunnel and doctored up Jeff's hand.

We decided to have lunch before taking our stroll through the park and stumbled upon a charming little place called Le Jardin de Montsouris. It is Vietnamese, and the owner is simply a gem of a woman. We tried out our French, struggled a bit, and she smiled and said, "You can speak English, you know." We laughed. We ordered a half pitcher of Chardonnay and the sweet and sour chicken - Jeff got his with rice; I got mine with noodles.

Not my picture, but here is the restaurant - just across from the Parc Montsouris

Our meals were absolutely delicious

Here I am with the owner - she has a great smile!

Our hunger assuaged, we were ready to spend a good part of the afternoon in the park. There was a school group in the park - several ages, we think - doing a scavenger hunt. The kids were all excited and thoroughly engaged in the activity. It was fun to watch them scurrying along the paths in search of whatever was on their papers. Teachers were at key intersections to help those who needed a bit of redirection.

It was fun to listen to him speaking in French and the girls asking questions. As they ran off, they shouted, "Merci, Monsieur! Beaucoup de merci!"

Les Hellenes De France

This statue has a piece of twine tied around her leg with some orange "things" - they seemed to be hole punches that the students used to punch their lists. I suspect these were scattered throughout the park, but this was the only one we saw.

We saw lots of children of all ages in this park. Some were accompanied by moms, others by what appeared to be nannies, and still others were accompanied by grandparents. I loved the images of kids doing what kids do -- like stalking ducks.

It is, after all, April in Paris, so we took lots and lots of photos of flowers.

Chestnuts in blossom - Pink ones!

Chestnuts in Blossom! Finally found them! - Pink ones and white ones!

Loved these French lilacs just beginning to emerge

Linda admiring French lilacs

Flowering tree and a close-up of blossoms

We saw many magnificent trees as we wandered through the park.

These ladies were sketching the pine tree shown above

We also observed statuary throughout the park.

Jeff took the picture on the left - and I took the picture of Jeff about to take that picture!

A memorial to Pierre Durand, who was killed by a German bomb on this spot.

There were amazing water features and beautiful walking paths throughout the park as well.

The fencing through the park looks like wood but is really concrete molded to look like wood!

The waterfall was really quite lovely, but difficult to capture in a photograph.

And, of course, there were trains that moved through the park!

This park is across the street from the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. The university was imagined in 1925 during the pacifist movement of the interwar period. The idea was to create a university experience where the young people of the world could learn to live together and participate in the construction of a peaceful world. A century later, this project remains relevant.

After several hours of walking and wandering, we got back on the train and headed back to the apartment, tired but happy with our day's adventures.

Because we had a fairly big lunch, we opted for bread and cheese for dinner. Jeff took a quick walk to the boulangerie to purchase a fresh baguette - which was actually warm when he brought it home.