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Ma Petite Lettre
de Paris
Super summer in
Paris Paris News13, 14 july : Le 14 juillet (Bastille Day) The French national holiday commemorates the storming of the bastille prison on 14 july 1789, start of the French Revolution & a foretaste of bloodier events to come. Every year, on the evening of july 13th, parisians are used to dance at the Place de la Bastille and at the firmen's balles. Join them to dance and to listen french music with accordions, entrances are free but not drinks! We call that Bal Musette. Many children are waiting this day because they are exceptionnally authorized to play with firecrackers ! Usually the Bastille day is a bank holiday. This year it will be on a Saturday so a lot of stores will be closed . At 10am on july 14th, crowds line on the Champs Elysées as the president reviews the military parade from the Arc de Triomph to the Concorde (Warning: metro stations all along the Champs Elysées are closed for security reasons). To get a chance to see this parade, my advice is to come early in the morning around 8am. Usually, the french President opens the parade going down the Champs Elysees on a military car. Last year, I went to the Champs Elysees because my father had obtained some seats in a tribune (he is a veteran ) but to see something we had to stand up and it had been raining non stop ! ( 2 hours under the rain, my boys were diped ). Anyway, the spectacle was really great ! Every year, my favorite moment is when the worldwide known aerobatic team "Patrouille de France" deposits their blue , white and red smokes in the sky of PARIS (when the weather allows them to fly at very low altitude and high speed...). In the meantime, on the earth , the french Republic guards on their horses and especially the firemen of Paris are always warmly applauded because they are very popular in France: parisians love their firemen, they are doing a GREAT JOB !!! Our military parade is retransmitted on the majority of our TV channels. In the evening, thousands of people are gathering on the Champs-de-Mars to admire a fantastic firework launched from the Trocadéro at around 11pm. Again, it is a good idea to come early (around 9pm) and if you plan to go there with a group, take care to stay together because of the huge crowd ! Usually the spectacle is really GREAT. If you are not in Paris, nevermind, the Bastille day is celebrated in all french towns with parades, bals musettes and fireworks. Have fun and hope you will enjoy ! This will be a GREAT souvenir of PARIS Paris sport July 29 th Tour de France arrival on the Champs-ElyseesFrom july 7th to July 29th This
bike race will cross France along
3 462 kilometers. The Tour de France is very popular here. The landscapes
shown on
TV are so beautifull and different from seasides to high montains.
Paris OLYMPIC 2008 : July 13th - The big decision On july 13th , we will know if PARIS is
selected for the 2008 Olympic games. Paris
romantic gardens It is one of the most beautiful visits in Paris. Belonging to the Grand Axe which goes from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe, it includes the Tuilleries gardens, the Place de la Concorde & the place de l'Etoile. The Tuilleries gardens ( Say: Les jardins des Tuileries) are ones of the most perfect exemples of a classical french style garden. Over the past few years, the gardens have been cleaned up and replanted, thus it is ready for a new millennium. As in the Luxembourg garden, kids can play with miniature boats in the large pond, or have fun with poney rides (wednesday, saturday & sunday & during school holiday periods including July & August daily), sandpits and roundabouts. In front of the main entrance, the Fairy wheel built for the Millenium is still there Place de la Concorde. You can have a nice view of Paris on this Grande Roue ( from 11am to 0.30pm, every day-entrance 30FF) and every year during summer there is a nice fun fair with large Merry-go-rounds, tobogan and other activities in the Tuileries... Unfortunately: The Orangerie Museum inside the Tuilerie gardens, with its important impressionists works, is closed until autumn 2001 (restructuring the building ). Jardins des Tuilleries opens daily from 7am to 9pm-tel: 01 40 20 90 43,m° Tuilleries or Concorde. Nearby the Tuileries, I warmly recommend Angelina (famous tea room). I love to go there with my girlfriends to see the clientele of wealthy Parisiennes & tourists laden with designer goodies. I suggest you to taste a hot chocolate & Mont Blanc (cake)...Oh, la, la !! Comme c'est bon ! Pronounce phonetically: "come say bon " ("bon" as in "Bonjour") Angelina: 226 rue de Rivoli- M° Tuileries -tel 01 42 60 82 00 The CHAMP DE MARS : My garden ! This park, with the Ecole Militaire at one end and
the
hill of Chaillot at the other end, is dominated by the famous Tour Eiffel.
"CHAMP DE MARS" name means "Field of Mars" (Mars was
the Roman god of war). During the afternoon, the Champ de Mars is the kingdom of children : young parisians flock to this park to "patinette"or to skateboard or to roller skate. At the end of the day it's an excellent place for a picnic. It is the best place to have a relaxing dinner in Paris on the green with a so nice view on the Eiffel Tower and not expensive at all of course (you bring your dinner with you ) ! During the day, it is absolutely impossible to walk on the grass in front of the tower because the guards are not here to be kind but to make the law respected and they neither understand nor speak english! Nevertheless after 7 pm, there are no more guards and even it is always forbidden to stay on the green, a lot of people come there to have a picnic in front of the tower until 1am or 2 am after having seen the sunset and the Eiffel tower sparkling : the spectacle is hudge ! Many of them invite their friends and bring tables , napkins, candles and Champagne to have a wonderful dinner. Others come with their family, babies and grannies to get the first fresh air after a warm day. The Eiffel Tower is continuing to display its glittering lights for 10 minutes every hour on the hour, from sunset until 1 am. The lights on the tower shut down for the night at 1 am, so just after 1am, the next and last 10 minutes sparkling are the only lights: at this very time all people on the grass shout and whistle ! Surrealistic ambiance ! I have this chance to live just besides the Eiffel Tower and I live a love story with this monument, but all around ,there are so many typical things to see, not mentioned in the touristic guides. I will continue to give you an other glance on the surroundings, viewed by me in my day to day life here. But a violent thunderstorm is now just above PARIS and the rain begins to fall strongly while people are enjoying their picnic on the Champ de Mars ..... I forgot one advice: for a picnic on the Champ de Mars, it is a good idea to have an umbrella with you. An other kind of souvenir of PARIS !
A bientot. Noelle from PARIS Champ de Mars. You like to read my previous letters: Any comments or feedbacks, please E-Mail
me at: Noelle@babiole.com * |
