Summer in the City

    I'm afraid I lost track of time in the past month, and was surprised to see how long it had been since my last entry. After sitting and passing my final exams for the year, I took some time off from living – a well deserved break, during which I did not get a whole lot done, but surely had some fun.
   
    Of course, my freedom has had its limits as I've continued working my supermarket job. While the latter is boring, and makes me get up very early, it is a necessity, so that I can have some spare money for this summer and then while I'm at college. The downside is that it continues to make me very tired, because I am definitely not a morning person. As a student, in Paris, with all my friends starting their summer break, opportunities to go out in the evening and have a good time are numerous, and it's quite a shame to miss out on a party. So, in the accumulation of late nights out and early mornings up, I've accumulated some fatigue and am often sleepy during the daytime. Lately, I have been trying to make efforts to keep my rhythm a bit more reasonable and I also am just learning to accept that this is the way things are for the next month.

    Indeed, it came to me with a certain amount of shock that I only have one month left to live in Paris, before I start traveling for the summer, and effectively leave this city, my home for the past eleven years. I finish my job on August 15th, which means I depart either that same day or on the sixteenth. In the meantime, I fully intend on making the most of my Parisian living one last time.

    Lately, I have been taking great pleasure in spending afternoons in the city's many parks with some friends. Unlike some great cities like New York or London, who have one famous large park (Central Park, Hyde Park, etc.) Paris is full of a variety of green areas, neither being remarkably better or more popular than the other. Within the city proper, you'll only find relatively small parks, while two major ones are at the city limits.

    In the 15th arrondissement (district) where I live, you'll find le parc André Citroën, which is a very curious public garden. It was designed by architects and is effectively very modern and angular in its construction. Nature is heavily contrasted by the use of a lot of geometric constructions in slates of stone, wood and metal. It contains a number of themed smaller areas to discover, each unique and interesting. It is one of my personal favorites and I especially recommend it in the summer time, because of its terrace with walk-in fountains.

    On the other side of town, in the 19th district, is another one of my preferences: Les Buttes Chaumont. This parc is caracterized by its many hills (buttes = hill), which were actually artificially constructed. Its terrain is very steep, but it has a number of wonderful areas with comfortably tall grass, where you can completely relax in, and you'll also be sure to enjoy the scenery, with the lake surrounding impressive cliffs, surmounted by a good viewpoint over the city.

    These are probably my two favorite parks in the city, but a number of other ones are also well worth checking out, including: le parc de Belleville, le jardin d'Éole, le jardin du Luxembourg, les Tuileries, etc.

    In addition to these traditional parks, you also get several long areas of the city with a lot of great lawns, which are popular places for picnics, especially in the evening. The most famous one is undoubtedly, Le Champs de Mars, which is where you'll find the Eiffel Tower, but l'Esplanade des Invalides, and l'Avenue de Breteuil (which both surround Les Invalides, a famous military monument and resting place of Napoleon I) are quite similar, and usually less crowded.

    Finally, le bois de Boulogne and le bois de Vincennes complete our selection of green locations. Both are much large than the previous ones I named and are respectively located on the western and eastern border of the city. So, while they're not necessarily easy to access, they are the best natural locations available near Paris. Of the two, I prefer Vincennes, which is wilder and have spent a number of afternoons tanning in the sun there, this past month.

    So, with the return of warm weather, I have been spending a lot of time enjoying what Paris has to offer as a version of nature. In between evening celebrating birthdays at the Champs de Mars, and afternoons of laziness and catching up on sleep in the sun, I've found my niche in the outdoors, relaxing and having a good time. However, in an upcoming entry, I'll be sure to tell you all about my equally interesting nightlife activities.