<BR>Where would be some great places to have a picnic in Paris? Is it true that you can't sit on the grass?

Open grass lawns:<BR><BR>In front of Les Invalides facing the the Seine<BR><BR>Champs de Mars under the Eiffel Tower<BR><BR>Luxembourg Gardens, certain lawns only<BR><BR>Parc Butte-Chaumont<BR><BR>Parc Montsouris<BR><BR>That is all I know of off the top of my head. I am sure there are others. Perhaps Parc Monceau but I am not sure.

Try the Square du Vert-Galant on the tip of Ilede la Cite, just down from Pont-Neuf. Jinx Hoover

I suggest Parc Monceau (16th) and Place des Vosges (4th). Monceau features lovely monuments, toll houses, colonades and falling water, in an area replete with mansions of the 2nd Empire. Vosges, built on a much smaller scale (a square) in the Marais, is simply set in one of the world's first shopping malls, once home to Victor Hugo (where his museum sits) and Henri IV. Great area in which to stroll, before or after. Also quite, quite pleasant: Jardin du Ranelagh, bordering Musee Marmottan (itself worth the trip for the Impressionistic trove therein) in the 16th, an area that does not get enough good publicity. Finally, l'Ile Saint-Louis (4th) features a small park on the eastern tip that looks out on the river and some outstanding 17th century architecture.

I'm sure I'm butchering the spelling, but on the south side of St. Eustusche, near the Pompidou Center, there is a small park. Two years ago a friend and I had a wonderful picnic there of bread, cheese, pate, and wine. There were lots of Parisians there enjoying the beautiful day and the view of the cathedral.

Does anyone remember the mile long picnic they had in Paris on Bastille Day two years ago in the Luxembourg Gardens? Was that a yearly event, or just a one time thing?<BR><BR>Everyone was picnicking together on the grass that day!

That big picnic was a special millenium event in France -- it wasn't just in Luxembourg Gardens, it took place in lots of spots along something called the meridian which is some geographical line going from Dunkirk down to Spain or something. I'm not sure what it is exactly (the meridian), but there were those public picnics in various places, even within Paris. As I recall, the weather was not very nice, though.

It's the same meridian that passes through Greenwich (0 degrees longitude).