Parc de la Villette

Today we discovered one of Paris' hidden treasures - The Parc de la Villette. It is a bit off the beaten path so few tourists bother, but it is definitely a spot where we will take our visitors. Built on the site of the former slaughterhouses of Paris (no traces remain), it is a huge urban park built between 1979 and 1996. There are 10 themed gardens (e.g., the garden of mirrors, the garden of shadows, the garden of islands). The kids' favorite was the garden of dunes and wind. Among other things, this garden had a series of hills of all sizes and materials for climbing on, sliding down, and swinging across. There are also 26 architectural folies designed by Bernard Tschumi. (For the architecturally-challenged among us, a folly is part building, part sculpture). I'm sure you can guess which of us was more interested in the gardens and which of us was more interested in the follies :)

Also in the park are several museums. We visited the Museum of Science and Industry where we saw an exhibit on "Man and his Genes" (which Ella, of course, called "Man and his Pants"). I'm sure this will become a favorite rainy day destination too.

This evening we decided to buy our weekly Metro passes (Carte Orange) in preparation for starting work and camp in earnest tomorrow. In typical French fashion this was more complicated than expected. First, our Metro stop was not selling tickets for some inexplicable reason. Also, the passport size photos we had brought from home were too big. Then, the next Metro station didn't have change for the photo booth. You get the idea. Fortunately, we didn't need the Carte de Sejour to get our Carte Orange, and we managed to secure them in under two hours!