Paris is a beautiful city and we enjoyed a week there to slow down and take our time to get to know her better. The romantic River Seine was just under our windows at our wonderful studio apartment on Île de la Cité, an island in the river that is also the location of the famous Notre Dame Cathedral.
Our convenient location on the Seine made it our top choice for transportation around Paris. We hoped on and off of the Batobus river shuttle boats with a five-day pass. With only about ten minutes between stops on the route, it is a pleasant way to savor the sights along the river.
One of the stops on the Batobus shuttle route is the Jardin des Plantes, a 24-hectare (59 acres) botanical garden (free) that includes a natural history museum (fee). Parisians use the large and beautiful gardens for jogging, outings and botanical education.
Jardin des Plantes was originally known as Jardin du Roi (Garden of the King) as it was first a medicinal garden planted for Louis XIII in 1633.
There were large floral displays of spring plants - myosotis, tulips, wallflowers, and poppies of all colors. In addition to the display gardens are greenhouses, an Alpine garden, a potager, a rose garden and a botanical school.
Even avid gardeners have to eat lunch, especially when there is so much fabulous food around. We jumped on a bateaux (boat) and headed back to our apartment before seeing all of the very large Jardin des Plantes.
Our next stop was lunch at Le Petit Plateau, a little Salon du Thé on the same street, Quai aux Fleurs (yes, flowers) as our apartment. We dined outside to enjoy the beautiful day, river view, and the entertainment on the pedestrian bridge that links Île de la Cité with another island, Île Saint-Louis.
The quiche, salad, wine, bread, dessert - incredible! We had lunch (11 Euros each) there twice during the week. How good? This good...
Story and photos by Freda Cameron; Location: Paris, France; May 2009