Paris V: the Antipodes Jardin Albert Kahn
Jun 12th, 2015, 10:25 PM
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Paris V: the Antipodes Jardin Albert Kahn
Sorry to be a day late with this. I worked hard writing yesterday, but Fodor's server went down while I uploaded. So I will write again.
This describes trips to two Parisian gardens on successive days. Well, they are not quite Parisian gardens because each is located in a suburb, though not a banlieue, but they count because each is at the end of a Metro line and each is at the limit of zone 2 on your ticket. I think of them as the Antipodes because they are about as far apart as you can get going straight across Paris.
The Jardin Albert Kahn is in Boulogne-Billancourt, around the corner from the Pont St Cloud stop on Line 10. We had begun at Gare de l'Est on Line 4, changing at Odeon, a long way for €1.4.
Kahn was a philanthropic banker who knew everyone worth knowing and who was devoted to world harmony and gardens. There is an innovative museum at the site which features this work. He commissioned photographers to document the world, and there are beautiful color pictures, superbly restored, of the world mostly before 1914. Speaking of pictures, Kerouac has photographed this, though I haven't had time to look them up. His photos are always almost like being there.
The gardens show what you could do in thirty years if you had lots of money, lots of cheap labor, and lots of imagination. When you leave the museum, you are in an elaborate Japanese garden which stretches away on both sides. Beyond that are a pair of formal gardens, a lawn with flower beds backed by a conservatory, and an espaliered orchard and climbing rose garden. Behind these are a series of woodland and meadow gardens that were very distinct in Kahn's mind but which for the visitor flow mostly into a series of extremely pleasant woodland walks -- in the midst of a city.
In the "Vosges" section, I took pictures that look just like pictures from the White Mountains of New Hampshire, though the boulders here are placed by art and not glaciers! A wonderful feature throughout are little plaques with quotes and pictures by people from the neighborhood that recount their pleasures in the gardens from childhood to old age (including where they used to go to make out as teenagers)! If Kahn's larger purpose was doomed, he has certainly brought peace and joy to many through this garden.
We went back to the 10th beginning on the 72 bus which also terminates at Pont St Cloud and goes all the way to the Hotel de Ville, albeit ever more slowly as it gets into the congested tourist areas. If you get on at the beginning, you have a seat all the way.
Much of the route runs along the Seine past fabulously wealthy neighborhoods, then The Sites/Sights/Must sees -- the Eiffel and Trocadero, Invalides, the General Assembly and the Palais's, Petit and Grand, Concorde, the Louvre, all the way to the Conciegerie, the streets and the bus growing the more crowded all the time. I am extremely fortunate, and I know it, to be retired and to be able to travel off-season because I simply could not manage the crowds.
Finally, we arrived at the Hotel de Ville and made our way down Avenue Victoria to Boulevard Sebastopol where we caught the 38 bus just opposite Chatelet. On the way "home" we drove by a block somewhere near Chateau d'Eaux, where a small African market had developed in front of some Afro-Caribbean shops, and it looked like my idea of, say, Dahomey, (not that I know anything about ?Dahomey!) with everyone in national dress and lots of loud music. How great is that for another €1.4?
In terror of losing this all again, I am going to post this and come back later with our trip to the Chateau de Vincennes.
This describes trips to two Parisian gardens on successive days. Well, they are not quite Parisian gardens because each is located in a suburb, though not a banlieue, but they count because each is at the end of a Metro line and each is at the limit of zone 2 on your ticket. I think of them as the Antipodes because they are about as far apart as you can get going straight across Paris.
The Jardin Albert Kahn is in Boulogne-Billancourt, around the corner from the Pont St Cloud stop on Line 10. We had begun at Gare de l'Est on Line 4, changing at Odeon, a long way for €1.4.
Kahn was a philanthropic banker who knew everyone worth knowing and who was devoted to world harmony and gardens. There is an innovative museum at the site which features this work. He commissioned photographers to document the world, and there are beautiful color pictures, superbly restored, of the world mostly before 1914. Speaking of pictures, Kerouac has photographed this, though I haven't had time to look them up. His photos are always almost like being there.
The gardens show what you could do in thirty years if you had lots of money, lots of cheap labor, and lots of imagination. When you leave the museum, you are in an elaborate Japanese garden which stretches away on both sides. Beyond that are a pair of formal gardens, a lawn with flower beds backed by a conservatory, and an espaliered orchard and climbing rose garden. Behind these are a series of woodland and meadow gardens that were very distinct in Kahn's mind but which for the visitor flow mostly into a series of extremely pleasant woodland walks -- in the midst of a city.
In the "Vosges" section, I took pictures that look just like pictures from the White Mountains of New Hampshire, though the boulders here are placed by art and not glaciers! A wonderful feature throughout are little plaques with quotes and pictures by people from the neighborhood that recount their pleasures in the gardens from childhood to old age (including where they used to go to make out as teenagers)! If Kahn's larger purpose was doomed, he has certainly brought peace and joy to many through this garden.
We went back to the 10th beginning on the 72 bus which also terminates at Pont St Cloud and goes all the way to the Hotel de Ville, albeit ever more slowly as it gets into the congested tourist areas. If you get on at the beginning, you have a seat all the way.
Much of the route runs along the Seine past fabulously wealthy neighborhoods, then The Sites/Sights/Must sees -- the Eiffel and Trocadero, Invalides, the General Assembly and the Palais's, Petit and Grand, Concorde, the Louvre, all the way to the Conciegerie, the streets and the bus growing the more crowded all the time. I am extremely fortunate, and I know it, to be retired and to be able to travel off-season because I simply could not manage the crowds.
Finally, we arrived at the Hotel de Ville and made our way down Avenue Victoria to Boulevard Sebastopol where we caught the 38 bus just opposite Chatelet. On the way "home" we drove by a block somewhere near Chateau d'Eaux, where a small African market had developed in front of some Afro-Caribbean shops, and it looked like my idea of, say, Dahomey, (not that I know anything about ?Dahomey!) with everyone in national dress and lots of loud music. How great is that for another €1.4?
In terror of losing this all again, I am going to post this and come back later with our trip to the Chateau de Vincennes.
Jun 12th, 2015, 10:44 PM
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Thanks for taking us along on your travels, Ackislander!
Some of it is familiar territory to me, and some is I'm adding to my 'must see' list . . . just in case I'm lucky enough to get another trip to Paris. Di
Some of it is familiar territory to me, and some is I'm adding to my 'must see' list . . . just in case I'm lucky enough to get another trip to Paris. Di
Jun 13th, 2015, 04:42 AM
#4
I'm enjoying your descriptions.
To avoid losing what I write before posting, I compose long passages off line in my word processor and then copy them into the reply box on Fodor's. It can be very frustrating to lose a long passage after writing it.
To avoid losing what I write before posting, I compose long passages off line in my word processor and then copy them into the reply box on Fodor's. It can be very frustrating to lose a long passage after writing it.
Jun 13th, 2015, 05:52 AM
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Well, that's what I'm doing NOW, Nikki! 
I am doing all this stuff on my iPad Mini, so I tend to take a certain number of risks to preserve limited storage.
Not in this context, ever again!
I am doing all this stuff on my iPad Mini, so I tend to take a certain number of risks to preserve limited storage.
Not in this context, ever again!
Jun 13th, 2015, 06:41 AM
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Ackslander
Really enjoying your TR so far, particularly the bus travel. I'll be in Paris in October and plan to attempt one of those scenic rides if I can figure out the logistics. I need to scope out Gare Montparnesse and will be staying in the 2nd near Grands Boulevards.
Really enjoying your TR so far, particularly the bus travel. I'll be in Paris in October and plan to attempt one of those scenic rides if I can figure out the logistics. I need to scope out Gare Montparnesse and will be staying in the 2nd near Grands Boulevards.
Jun 13th, 2015, 08:07 AM
#7
I'm glad you liked the gardens and thank you for the compliment. Here is my report about the Albert Kahn gardens, to which I will return soon, because they need to be seen during every season.
http://tinyurl.com/pulhzjs
http://tinyurl.com/pulhzjs
Jun 13th, 2015, 08:12 AM
#8
If you have not already gone to the Château de Vincennes, there is a bus you can take there that will drop you off at one of my other favourite secret gardens inside the Bois de Vincennes.
http://tinyurl.com/oeqpd8g
http://tinyurl.com/oeqpd8g
Jun 13th, 2015, 12:27 PM
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Sweet report - more gardens to ferret out - with kerouac's too.
Q - Are the Albert Khan Gardens free or entry fee?
Thanks for a wondrous start to your off-beat Paris adventuers!
As the French would say "Bravo"!
Q - Are the Albert Khan Gardens free or entry fee?
Thanks for a wondrous start to your off-beat Paris adventuers!
As the French would say "Bravo"!
Jun 13th, 2015, 12:36 PM
#11
We also enjoyed our time at the Albert Kahn Musee et Jardins. Here's a few more pics from one of our days in Paris last year when we visited...along with some other things we did that day.
http://travelswithmaitaitom.com/chap...du-patrimoine/
http://travelswithmaitaitom.com/chap...du-patrimoine/
