Paris main visit page 2

History and scandals

Cité and musée de la Musique, a must!!!

Cite des Sciences et d'Industrie

Parc de la Vilette

Parc des Buttes Chaumont

Mouzaia quarter-Picturesque village in heart Paris

Paris-19th arr -Parc de la Vilette 

Leaving the Geode you can enter the parc de la Vilette, work of Bernard Tschumi. He wanted to make a "park of the 21st century", a park of activities, different from the charming and restful parks of the 18th and 19th centuries. Little importance is given to "greenery": some lanes lined with trees, fields dotted with luminous cobblestones and 11 thematic gardens (vegetable garden, water garden, garden of mist, garden of childish fears, bamboo garden created by Alexandre Chemetoff...). The ancient halle aux boeufs (beef) is one of the finest examples of 19th century iron constructions, Baltard style. Very well renovated, it is called now LA GRANDE HALLE and houses now exhibitions, concerts, conferences and avant-garde theatre plays.  The building just next to it used to be the place where the skins of the slaughtered animals were sold. It is now the Theatre de la Villette with the movie theatre “Arletty”, showing scientific movies for free.
But let’s go back to the park de la Villette. 
The architect Bernard Tschumi imagined thematic sectors and 25 painted follies in red punctuating the ensemble of the domain having a decorative function or a very precise one: Argonaute, music kiosk, Cinaxe, restaurants, information centre… Inside these " folies" you have a children nursery, a bar, diverse activities....
 The parc is divided in ten different varied gardens that you can discover in a very sinuous itinerary where you can see “Le Jardin des Miroirs”, rhythmed by monoliths covered by mirrors in inox that create a dream and illusion garden. Like that you can continue with “Jardin de la Treille“ (Vexlard and Albert) staged on eight terraces, “Le Jardin des Bambous” deeply hidden in the ground, “Le Jardin des Equilibres” (B.Tschumi) with its so varied exotic essences, so pretty by the harmony of its colours, “Le Jardin du Dragon” (Tschumi and Ghys), with its wooden animal 80 meters long, in an environment of blue pine trees.
Walking towards the Grands Moulins de Pantin (Large Mills of Pantin) that occupies the horizon of the peripheral expressway, you will see the Trapped Bicycle of Claes Oldenborg and Coosje van Bruggen (1990).
In the same park, from mid-July until end of August, the " open air movie theatre" : rerun of classics. In the "Grande Halle" end June-begin August: La Villette Jazz Festival.

Bibliography

--Vie et histoire des arrondissements de Paris, ed.Hervas (1985-1988--Nouvelle Histoire de Paris, ed.Hachette--Le Pieton de Paris, by L.P.Fargue, ed.Gallimard 1997--Dictionnaire historique des rues de Paris, by J.Hillairet, ed.Minuit --Guide du Routard 1998-1999 (Ed.Hachette)--Paris, 2000 d'histoire, by J.Favier, ed.Fayard 1997 --Paris 19eme siecle, l'immeuble et la rue, by F.Loyer, ed.Hazan, 1994- Bernard Tschumi, œuvres, by Jean de la Tournelle (ed.Seuil architecture de jardin, 1998)