It really isn't, I had another pretty nice day sunny in the morning and then turning cloudy in the afternoon. I wanted to see more of the Cite Universitaire International de Paris, so I caught the metro and the RER (train) down to the Cite Universitaire station, it takes about 30 minutes give or take and lets you out right across the street.
As I mentioned in an earlier post each country choosing to participate built a "dormitory" type building for students of their country that wanted to study in Paris. This was during the 20's and 30's and it has been functioning ever since. It sits just inside the Peripherique, the ring road which delineates the boundary of Paris proper, in the south center of the city. What I like about the buildings are that there was an attempt to impart a bit of the vernacular architecture of the country in the buildings, so the Greek building has a temple front and the Japanese building looks a bit like Edo castle, etc.
The Spanish building looks right out of Franco but to soften it up a bit they installed four beautiful outdoor sculptures, and it also has a restaurant in the basement. I did manage to get some clear pictures of the parrots that are in the area, we saw fleeting glimpses last time but this time they stayed around for me.
Alas it must be a holiday of some sort here because many things were closed both in the campus and across the city. So I wandered through and when I was finished I walked back across the street to the Parc Montsouris.
We never fully explored the park when Deb and I were here before so I took the time to go to the other corners. I found another disused bit of the Petite Ceinture railway which was a revelation. I also discovered that they have an art installation in the lake which is pretty cool. I sat by the lake and had lunch while I watched the birds in the lake, gulls, mallards, black swans, exotic geese, and some other littler duck type birds too. Very enjoyable.
After lunch, on a whim I decided to walk back to the apartment. As you likely know our apartment is in the extreme northeast part of Paris almost at the Peripherique so essentially my goal was to walk all the way across Paris from South to North. I wanted to follow part of the pilgrim road through Paris that began at the what is now the Tour St. Jacque and ended in Santiago de Compostella in Spain. The street is still Rue St. Jacque and Rue Faubourg St. Jacque but I'm a little hazy as to where it went from there, no matter. I began on a street that almost directly connects to rue Faubourg St. Jacque so it could very well have been part of the original way. What was so interesting to me is that there are so many Parisian landmarks along or very close to the road. The first thing was the Observatory of Paris at the bottom of the Luxembourg Gardens, the apartment that Sunny and Mary Schreiner stayed in was only a block away, that was followed by Val de Grace, the French Oceanographic Institute supported by Prince Albert of Monaco, even the apartment that we considered renting before settling on this one was only a half block away. It goes right through the middle of the University of Paris, which was setup to counter the growing power of the Sorbonne. The Pantheon is only a block away from the street, and when you get down to the Seine you are at the front of the parvis for Notre Dame, I tell ya this street's got everything. It ends at the east side of the Tour St. Jacque on the Rue de Rivoli.
Since it dead ends about a block later I switched over to the Boulevard Sebastopol which would take me up to Gare de l'Est but I only followed that up to the Grand Boulevards where I was directly between two of the old city tax gates, the Porte St. Denis and the Porte St. Martin. I switched over to the Rue Faubourg St. Martin and continued north, it passes right next to Gare de l'Est and then veers off a little to the east. As I walked by the station I saw a cafe where there were chess players gathered and competing. I followed Faubourg St. Martin up to where it intersected Rue La Fayette and then followed that up to where it turns into Avenue Jean Jaures which is the main drag for our neighborhood. I followed Jean Jaures up to Rue des Ardennes which is at the end of our block.
I saw these last two cuties as I was almost home, they were gathering leaves, just like the little kids, they were very gracious to let me take their picture. The entire trip took me about 3 hours, including some stops to do some shopping and take pictures, Paris is really not that large!
As I mentioned in an earlier post each country choosing to participate built a "dormitory" type building for students of their country that wanted to study in Paris. This was during the 20's and 30's and it has been functioning ever since. It sits just inside the Peripherique, the ring road which delineates the boundary of Paris proper, in the south center of the city. What I like about the buildings are that there was an attempt to impart a bit of the vernacular architecture of the country in the buildings, so the Greek building has a temple front and the Japanese building looks a bit like Edo castle, etc. 
The Spanish building looks right out of Franco but to soften it up a bit they installed four beautiful outdoor sculptures, and it also has a restaurant in the basement. I did manage to get some clear pictures of the parrots that are in the area, we saw fleeting glimpses last time but this time they stayed around for me.
Alas it must be a holiday of some sort here because many things were closed both in the campus and across the city. So I wandered through and when I was finished I walked back across the street to the Parc Montsouris.
We never fully explored the park when Deb and I were here before so I took the time to go to the other corners. I found another disused bit of the Petite Ceinture railway which was a revelation. I also discovered that they have an art installation in the lake which is pretty cool. I sat by the lake and had lunch while I watched the birds in the lake, gulls, mallards, black swans, exotic geese, and some other littler duck type birds too. Very enjoyable.
After lunch, on a whim I decided to walk back to the apartment. As you likely know our apartment is in the extreme northeast part of Paris almost at the Peripherique so essentially my goal was to walk all the way across Paris from South to North. I wanted to follow part of the pilgrim road through Paris that began at the what is now the Tour St. Jacque and ended in Santiago de Compostella in Spain. The street is still Rue St. Jacque and Rue Faubourg St. Jacque but I'm a little hazy as to where it went from there, no matter. I began on a street that almost directly connects to rue Faubourg St. Jacque so it could very well have been part of the original way. What was so interesting to me is that there are so many Parisian landmarks along or very close to the road. The first thing was the Observatory of Paris at the bottom of the Luxembourg Gardens, the apartment that Sunny and Mary Schreiner stayed in was only a block away, that was followed by Val de Grace, the French Oceanographic Institute supported by Prince Albert of Monaco, even the apartment that we considered renting before settling on this one was only a half block away. It goes right through the middle of the University of Paris, which was setup to counter the growing power of the Sorbonne. The Pantheon is only a block away from the street, and when you get down to the Seine you are at the front of the parvis for Notre Dame, I tell ya this street's got everything. It ends at the east side of the Tour St. Jacque on the Rue de Rivoli.
Since it dead ends about a block later I switched over to the Boulevard Sebastopol which would take me up to Gare de l'Est but I only followed that up to the Grand Boulevards where I was directly between two of the old city tax gates, the Porte St. Denis and the Porte St. Martin. I switched over to the Rue Faubourg St. Martin and continued north, it passes right next to Gare de l'Est and then veers off a little to the east. As I walked by the station I saw a cafe where there were chess players gathered and competing. I followed Faubourg St. Martin up to where it intersected Rue La Fayette and then followed that up to where it turns into Avenue Jean Jaures which is the main drag for our neighborhood. I followed Jean Jaures up to Rue des Ardennes which is at the end of our block.
I saw these last two cuties as I was almost home, they were gathering leaves, just like the little kids, they were very gracious to let me take their picture. The entire trip took me about 3 hours, including some stops to do some shopping and take pictures, Paris is really not that large!
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