SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2008

We found out on Wednesday from our gardener that on Saturday and Sunday there would be a Festival of Gardens in Paris. So we decided to go to the Bibliothèque Nationale François Mitterand to start our afternoon. The library is located along the Seine River. It was opened in 1996.

On the river bank there is a wide esplanade. Today there was a large cultural exhibition that was to last two days. There were many tents, as you can see, that housed all sorts of cultural organizations such as the French National Opera, French radio, museums, book publishers, etc. There was even a tent for the night clubs. See below.

There were loads of people there all afternoon.

We then crossed over the Seine on the passerelle Simone de Beauvoir. It is a wonderful pedestrians only bridge that has only recently been opened, inaugurated in 2006. As you can see, many people use it to cross the Seine.





On the other side of the Seine, the bridge leads directly into the Parc de Bercy. Today was the first day of the flower festivals in Paris. The Parc de Bercy had lots of people. It is a park of a little over 12 acres, which is quite large. We went first into the Yitzhak Rabin garden which has many different roses. While we were there, there was a guided tour of the garden.



As we strolled through the garden, we encountered actors who were giving little performances to either groups of kids or adults. This actor was a green apple for his presentation.


We wandered around a bit more and then went into the Orangerie where there were demonstrations of flower arranging. We watch several men making different kinds of arrangements.









They had made some beautiful flower arrangements as you can see. We then went back home via Charenton because we took the bus in the wrong direction so we had a rather circuitous route.