Parc des Buttes Chaumont

I bet I spelled the park name terribly wrong. My apologies to all my parisian readers (if there are any, and probably there are not).

I spent a Sunday afternoon in Paris touring around some less well known neighborhoods and found an alley with a few pubs, cafes, and restaurants, near a section I believed to be called "Little Jafna" in Paris. I had been on a mission to find this sri lankan neighborhood because according to some sources it's a Tamil speaking neighborhood or Paris. I figured between my broken french, tamil, and my well versed english I'd have no problem getting across the point I needed.

Well, I got sidetracked. I sat down for a beer (shock) and the bar waiter sat down and started chatting. I freaking LOVE paris. He sat down with a map and told me where basically everything was that he finds cool in paris. Amongst the highest recommendations was the parc des buttes chaumont. So on Monday I set out to find it. Armed only with a map with a few circles on it and limited french I figured it would happen. Luckily, Paris is geographically VERY small. The suburbs stretch out forever, but Paris itself... not so big.

In order to get to the park you have to walk up a rather large hill. I didn't know Paris had such a hill, but it does. You'll pass by the canal where Amelie skipped stones, and past a small chinese and vietnamese nieghborhood into a residential area where all the beautiful american stereotypes placed on paris are true. The only difference is that Paris is still more awesome than the sterotypes portray it to be.

Quick disclaimer: These are my opinions about Paris, but I think they are widely held opinions.

I step into a little wine shop right next to the local butcher. Why the hell not, I'm in France right? What's this? Really good wine for how much? TWO EUROS? THREE EUROS? A bottle of Cote Du Rhone 2004 for SEVEN EUROS!? OH MY GOD, I am SO MOVING HERE! So I splurged about bought two bottles of wine to take back to my host. I spent a whopping 7.35 euros (~$11) on two nice (not amazing, but very nice) bottles of wine. Walked along toward the park. Aha! There's a sign pointing me exactly where I want to go. MMM sushi. Don't stop now, go to the park. Oh, another liquor store, but with microbrewed french beer... Well, there goes more of my money. It was worth it, I found some exceptional beers of which I'd never heard and paid another 3 euros for a couple of bottles. Not a big spending day in fact.

Finally I make it to the park. It is absolutely gorgeous. Despite the fact that it was far too cold to really enjoy it, I sat up at the top of the first hill and watched people for a while. I got to play with a small dog running around chasing birds while his owner was studying something. There was a group of kids picnicking at the top of the same hill, so I busted out one of my beers. Not only, no complaints, but I found signs that say, don't litter, and they have pics of wine bottles on them. Drinking in the park, how novel! So I enjoy two of the finest french beers of my life and watch people for quite some time. A group of "alternative life style" women doing some very old school calisthenics, a group of teens playing guitar and singing crappy songs. I'm transported directly back to my youth for a moment. Then on the recommendation of the same waiter from sunday as before, I set off looking for a restaurant called Rosa Bonheur. It turns out, that restaurant is IN the park. The park is quite a bit larger than I'd expected. It contains miles of running tracks and several restaurants (including a mexican restaurant which I did not visit). I finally found Rosa Bonheur, but it was closed for renovation. Oh well.

Hey what's that? It's some look out or something... Nice!
Checking it out... Good place to sit, excellent view of paris, get to see the sunset from here... Sitting down right about now.

Eventually it occurred to me that the park closes AT sunset and I had quite a way to go down to get out. In order to avoid being
a) Trapped in the park all night
b) arrested
I decided it was best to leave BEFORE the park closed. Good call by the way.
But I did find something that to which I will immediately return upon arrival in Paris the next trip. There WILL be a next trip.