photos : Mairie de Paris - Elodie Loprin

Right in the heart of Paris, in place of a huge expanse of granite, come and visit the Oaris city council’s ephemeral garden! You’ll find a large area divided into several different spacesn quiet areas, tress, space for resting… and lots of info about what you can do to help preserve nature.

You’ll also see the vegetable patch, an explanation about the wonders of compost, a presentation of the flowers that attract bees and butterflies… In all,  3,200m² and 11 different little gardens to explore. A cavalcade of colours and smells, no doubt! And the giant-size map of Paris will help you to pick out where our city’s green spaces are, our market gardens, our trees…

Designed this year by landscape gardener Fabrice Yvelin, the fun side had not been neglected, with amusing differences in level (some gardens are planted right near the ground, others high up) and you’ll find guides in the courtyard terrace who will be able to answer any questions you have. Take your time to look around, then have a rest on one of the grassy benches!

Or why not try out a guided tour? They are on Tuesdays and Sundays at 2.30pm and 3.30pm. There are also storytelling sessions for children every Sunday at 3pm.

The ephemeral garden in front of Hôtel de Ville is open every day from 8am – 8pm.

More information and full details of what’s on (in French) here on the official site.

photo de yXeLLe ~@rtBrut~ utilisée sous licence cc

The event is organised by the « Interassociative lesbienne, gaie, bi et trans » (LGBT) and officially called the « Marche des Fiertés » (basically because the term Gay Pride has been sold off as a trademark) but everyone still refers to it as Gay Pride (a lot simpler).

The event kicks of at Montparnasse at 1.30pm Saturday 27th June and marching starts at 2pm. If you think the route to Bastille looks a little short, you may not realise that it takes about five hours to get there as it is, with tens of floats and hundreds of thousands of participants.

photo de yXeLLe ~@rtBrut~ utilisée sous licence cc

You may well be asked for a contribution along the way, as the organisers do not receive any public money for the event, and at 4.30pm precisely all music is stopped for a a three-minute silence in memory of those who have dies from AIDS and AIDS-related illnesses. The march’s slogan this year is « Proud of our struggle. When will we have real equality? »

If you’ve never seen Gay Pride in Paris, try standing somewhere along the route and watching it all go by. You’ll be entertained! The huge party at Bastille has to be seen to be believed as well…

photo de l r utilisée sous licence cc

photo de redking utilisée sous licence cc

You can join the Facebook group of the even here here.

And there’s a lot more info (in French) on the official Paris Gay Pride Marche des Fiertés site here.

Passion and butter? Makes me think of Last Tango in Paris...

Just a quick post today (it’s a public holiday in France) to mention Julie & Julia starring Merly Streep in 1950s Paris. Retro gastronomy. Yum!

The film’s out August 7th 2009 in the USA (11th September in the UK, full release date for other countrie here) and it’s a story split in two: two women, two cities, two eras…

On one side we have Meryl Streep as Julia Child, whose time in Paris gave rise to the the classic « Mastering the Art of French Cooking ». The film shows how she launched herself into a very male-dominated/sexist profession and succeeded.

On the other, Amy Adams play Julia Powell, a lowly office worker in contemporary New York. In true Sex And The City style (complete with voiceover in front of the laptop) she watches her girlfriends’ careers take off while she is paddling goign nowhere. So, she decided to take up a challenge: cook all 524 of Julia Child’s reciped in a year. Cue crazee scenes of stuff being spilled, burnt, etc.

The film was partly filmed in Paris, and a few photos of the shoot can be seen here on the official Paris council site. We love us some Meryl Streep (erm, apart from Mamma Mia), and even if the Paris shown is heavy on clichés, the film looks like an agreeable way to spend 90 minutes. You can’t go wrong with food films, can you?

Here’s the trailer (you can also see it in high definition here). The official movie site is here.

Over the weekend of 16th/17th May you’ll be able to discover a different side to Paris’ green spaces (in fact, there are events organised all over the country) and the rich diversity of plant and fauna. Launched two years ago by the International League for the Conservation of Nature ( l’Union Internationale pour la Conservation de la Nature) and « Wild Earth » magazine (Terre Sauvage), the aim is to make people realise how important it is to defend and preserve these spaces.

With 300,000 participants last year and an ever-growing number of events, the festival is an obvious success.

Here’s a taste of what’s on in Paris:

- several events involving birds  (birds in the city, in the jardin des Plantes, in Père Lachaise, the parc Montsouris…, the trees and birds of the Buttes-Chaumont (pictured right), bird and birdsong of the Bois de Boulogne…)

- The Saint-Vincent wild garden (18th arrondissement)

- Ecological discovery walks of the two ‘Bois’

- Getting started with nature drawing

- The Aqueduc allotments (14th arrondissement)

- La petite ceintue Auteil – Passy (an old railway line that circled the city)

- The butterfly garden at the Parc Floral

- Bees and friends at the Parc Floral (Yay! Sounds good…)

- From garden to garden by bike (ooh! Like the sound of this too!)

etc. etc.

The full list can be found on the official site (in French) fetedelanature.com, but just glancing at the map below shows that there’s plenty on all over. Should whet our appetite for the Fête des Jardins garden festival in September!

Click here to download a PDF file of the full programme of the Fête de la Nature for the Paris area, or here to go to the official site with lots more info (unfortunately all in French).

Paris has all sorts of unusual and wonderful things to offer. Come and see us!

Despite the apparent dangers of being an unlikely visitor in the kitchen of a fine French restaurant, Remy’s passion for cooking soon sets into motion a hilarious and exciting rat race that turns the culinary world of Paris upside down.

Pour en savoir plus sur ce nouveau dessin animé, vous pouvez vous rendre sur le site de Disney.fr.

You can enrol here or in front of the town hall of the 3rd, 6th, 13th, 18th, 19th districts on July 7th. The surreal adventure organized by Paris City Hall will be a unique way to discover the city, its secrets and its inhabitants.

You can hunt for the treasure alone or with friends (6 max). On your way, you will need to use your brain, your intuition, your observation skills, and you’ll have to be brave. Navigating in the maze of Paris streets, the treasure hunters will have to ask mysterious Paris characters for some clues.

You will come across the stories and legends of Paris , meeting some greatest characters of the city: famous writers, actors, singers or revolutionaries who will come back to life on July 7th.

The treasure hunters will also get a feel for the authentic heart of Paris : meeting shop keepers, craftsmen and artists or discovering little-known places like hidden gardens, narrow streets and secret passages.

You can discover Paris Treasure presentation on Dailymotion.

For further information, you can visit the following website: Tresor de Paris.

The beach will be opened from 7ham to midnight on the Seine’s banks.

As usual, there will be the first beach on the right bank, between Louvre and Sully bridge (Pont de Sully).
The second one will be settled in the Train Station harbour (Port de la Gare), under the new Simone de Beauvoir footbridge (passerelle Simone de Beauvoir).
You can reach this new beach thanks to the underground (Bercy station, line 14).

For further information, you can visit the following website: Paris.fr

Tournament schedule
Sunday May 27th to Sunday June 3rd: Matches start at 11am
Monday June 4th to Tuesday June 5th: Matches start at 12 noon
Wednesday 6th: Matches start at 11 am – men’s quarter-finals at noon
Thursday June 7th: Matches start at 11 am – Women’s semi-finals at 2pm
Friday June 8th: Matches start at 11am – Men’s semi-finals at 1pm
Saturday June 9th: Matches start at 11 am – Women’s final at 3pm
Sunday June 10th: Matches start at 11am – Men’s final at 3pm

Practical information

How to get to the stadium?
Metro
Line 9 : Mairie de Montreuil – Pont de Sèvres (use stations Michel-Ange Auteuil, Michel-Ange Molitor or Porte de Saint-Cloud)
Line 10 : Gare d’Austerlitz-Boulogne (Porte d’Auteuil station) BUS Line 22 : Opéra – Porte de Saint Cloud (get off at last stop)
Buses
Line 22 : Opéra – Porte de Saint-Cloud (get off at Michel-Ange-Auteuil)
Line 32 : Gare de l’Est – Porte d’Auteuil (get off at last stop)
Line 52 : Opéra – Pont de Saint-Cloud (get off at Porte d’Auteuil or la Tourelle)
Line 62 : Cours de Vincennes – Porte de Saint Cloud (get off at last stop)
Line 72 : Hôtel de Ville – Pont de Saint-Cloud (get off at la Tourelle)
Line 123 : Porte d’Auteuil – Mairie d’Issy (get off at Roland-Garros)
Line 241 : Suresnes – Porte d’Auteuil (get off at Suzanne-Lenglen)
PC1 : Petite Ceinture (get off at Porte d’Auteuil, Porte Molitor or Porte de Saint-Cloud)Mairie de Montreuil – Pont de Sèvres (stations Michel-Ange Auteuil, Michel-Ange Molitor ou Porte de Saint-Cloud)
Taxis
Two temporary taxi ranks will be set up for the public during the tournament, situated on the corner of Rue Gordon-Bennet and Boulevard d’Auteuil, and on the corner of Avenue de la Porte d’Auteuil et Rue Gordon-Bennett.
Car parks
Spectators can use the following car-parks which have been set up by the tournament organising committee (2006 tariffs) :
Saint-Cloud lawn: 1,000 spaces, 5 euros per day, 2.50 euros per half-day
Porte d’Auteuil shopping centre: 900 spaces, 15 euros per day.
Saint-Cloud car-park: 500 spaces, 16 euros per day.
Point du Jour car-park (near to Coubertin Stadium) : 445 spaces, 25 euros per day.
Shuttle buses
A free shuttle bus service will run between the various car-parks, Porte d’Auteuil, Porte de Saint-Cloud, the metro entrances and the entrance to Roland Garros stadium.

For more information on the various booking systems at Roland Garros, click here.

For futher information, you can visit the following website: Roland Garros – The French Open 2007.