A concert

I spent last Saturday afternoon attending a rehearsal by some friends, who the following day were giving a concert at the “Parc Floral” in the “Bois de Vincennes”. They are three friends who met in Budapest some two years ago and play together under the name of “L’air du temps”: Marine Park (piano), living in Paris but born in Korea, Siem Huijsman (cello), living close to Amsterdam and Fréderic Planchon (violin), living in Lyon. After the rehearsal, we made a short walk and ended up in my little garden with some champagne.

The following day, last Sunday, I went to the “Parc Floral” quite early in the morning, passed in front of the Vincennes Castle and found the garden with a lot of geese, some waterlilies…

… and the pavilion, “la scène amateurs”, where the concert was to be given at noon, of course with the friends again rehearsing. This is part of a musical program under the name “Classique au vert”, sponsored by the City of Paris and which offers concerts all weekends between August 11 and September 2 (see here). It gives – also - opportunities for very qualified “amateurs” to perform.

So, at noon, we were a few dozens who had the pleasure to listen to our friends. They played very successfully (ovation by the end) works by Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Mendelssohn (with Schubert as a “bis”).

Please double-click for a little extract... (Schubert)

I have already posted about the “Bois de Vincennes” here, here and here, about the “Parc Floral” here, about the Vincennes Castle here…

Vincennes Zoo

Paris has been without a real zoo for a couple of years. The Vincennes Zoo opened again in April after years of renovation. I made a tour with my grandkids.

I know that there are different opinions on the good of keeping animals in zoos. What I can say after this visit is that the installations are really nice.

However, all animals are not yet there, but many are. Some were lazy or shy and didn’t wish to have their portraits and another excuse was that the weather was not the best. Mister Lion was more or less hiding…. 

Anyhow, here are some samples.

Ruins

Adam, with the blog “Invisible Paris” (and some other blogs), had joined a global event called “Obscura Day”, proposing to see some odd, obscure, places around the world on the very same day, April 9. Adam invited us to visit a forgotten part of the Bois de Vincennes (see previous posts), one of the Paris "lungs" - together with the Bois de Boulogne. The place we visited is referred to as the “Jardin Tropical de Paris” (Paris Tropical Garden), originally created around 1900. France had then still a great number of colonies in Africa, the Far East…, and, with the aim to develop colonial production, different agronomic experiences were actively performed here in the beginning of the 20^th century. Such activities have disappeared or moved to other places and the Garden has more or less since decades been forgotten, abandoned. We were some 30 people who joined a extremely well prepared Adam.

A very special event took place here during some summer months in 1907; a Colonial Exhibition, very popular and with some two million visitors. A number of pavilions, more or less temporary, were built in a style which should remind about the different colonies. Some of them are still there, but more or less as ruins, a few have burnt down... Some, pieces of, statues are lying around. The tropical plants have disappeared and the natural vegetation has taken (more than) over.

To attract visitors in 1907, some animals were shown, like camels and also elephants (gliding into water on a toboggan)…  and it was also what you may describe as a “human zoo”. Hundreds of natives from the colonies were “exhibited”, living in huts, supposed to live as when they were at home, and this was probably then what most attracted the public. Times have changed … at least to some extent. Here are some illustrations I found on the net including comparisons with today’s entrance and the burnt down Congo pavilion.

Later, during and just after WWI, some of the buildings were used as hospitals for wounded colonial soldiers and several war memorials were erected. At some of them annual ceremonies still take place and a few have been partly restored.

In 1937 another Colonial Exhibition took place in the Bois de Vincennes, but not here and without a “human zoo”. Some very imposing – again temporary - buildings included a mosque and a copy of the Angkor Temple; part of the entrance to the temple garden was obviously later transferred to this part of the park. 

Although we are here somehow outside Paris we should remember that the Bois de Vincennes is part of the 12^th Paris arrondissement (like the Bois de Boulogne of the 16^th arrondissement) and the City of Paris seems now to have started some very limited restoration work.

Here you can see where to find the Garden and a plan of the 1907 exhibition. The best way to go here is to use the RER metro, destination Nogent-sur-Marne; you have then some two minutes walk to the entrance. When there is no visiting group as ours, you can expect to be rather alone.
 

As you may imagine from the above photos, we have since a couple of days, full summer in Paris with blue sky and some 22-23°C (73-74°F). This can also be seen in the parks close to where I live.

Parc Floral

In one corner of the “Bois de Vincennes” (see preceding post) is the Paris “Parc Floral”. It dates from 1969 and is used for flower shows, exhibitions… There is an open theatre, an “exotarium” (exotic fishes and reptiles), a lake…

It’s particularly a place for just relaxing, picnicking, walking around…

… and the place for some great playgrounds.

Sorry! Since some time I have been too busy to make the tour of blogs, to comment... Furthermore, I will be absent the coming week, but have pre-programmed a few posts, including this one.

Bois de Vincennes

The surface of Paris – if you neglect the suburbs – is quite limited, approximately following the red dotted line here. There are two exceptions to the near-to-circle form; one is the “Bois de Boulogne” in the west, the other is the “Bois de Vincennes” in the east. I have already made a number of posts on the “Bois de Boulogne” and a post on the “Château de Vincennes”. Here is something on the “Bois de Vincennes” park… or at least part of it – it’s large, actually three times larger than the NY Central Park and four times larger than the London Hyde Park.

As the “Bois de Boulogne”, the "Bois de Vincennes" was originally a hunting area for the royalty, but has been a public park since 1860. Since the 1930’s, one corner of the park is occupied by a zoo, but it’s closed for renovation. A hippodrome occupies a large part and you will also find a “Parc Floral” on which I will revert in a later post.

More generally, there are four lakes, one of them much more important than the others, “Lac Daumesnil”. This is the place where you can just walk around, row a boat, relax, play the saxophone…

… do some sun bathing when the first really warm days are finally here.

Other pleasures may include “yachting” like these gentlemen, kite flying …

During a walk in the more forest like areas, I found this group learning something about apiculture.

I wish you a nice weekend!