Paris Wanderings Day Six / aka my "Winter Walk-Off"

This is my 8th annual post for the "Winter Walk-Off" hosted by Les at A Tidewater Gardener. My first post was back in 2012, Les started in 2011.

His rules are simple, although I fear I may be taking liberties with them: "On your own two feet, leave the house, and share what can be seen within walking (or biking) distance of your home (if you want to drive to your walk destination that's OK too). Your post does not have to be about gardening or a travelogue (though I do like both), unless you want it to be. Maybe instead you will find some unusual patterns, interesting shadows, signs of spring, a favorite restaurant or shop, questionable landscaping, or local eyesores. Whatever, just keep your eyes and mind open, be creative, and have fun, but don't show anything from your own garden." He says walking, biking and driving to your destination are okay. I wonder how he feels about taking a taxi, two airplanes, another taxi and then the Metro? Well I guess he'll let me know if he disapproves. In the mean time I give you the wanderings of my sixth day in Paris, on January 22nd.

This is the ornamental wall as you climb up, up, up, up and UP out of the Metro station in Montmartre, nearest Sacré-Cœur.

And after that, there is even more climbing.

With interesting things to look at. This woven bit of artwork was solid, I have no idea what it was made of.

A wall painting...

Loquat! (aka Eriobotrya japonica)

And even a small pond (all of these are just to the right, or left, of the long staircase shown in the second image)...

There's our first destination of the day! Sacré-Cœur, no doubt it would have been much more remarkable had the rain not been falling hard. A blue sky would really accentuate all that stone.

And the view would have been even more expansive, without the clouds. C'est la vie!

Although I still found interesting things to observe...

We walked on, without going inside. My friend Julie had been in before, and I toured plenty of churches in Italy. I've no need to stand in line to see another. Besides, I found the surrounding buildings so much more interesting.

And when the rain came pouring down, again, we stopped for a glass of vin. My friend Julie...

And me (she was out on the sidewalk edge, I was sitting under the heat-lamps!)...

And then we soldiered on. This watertower and it's surrounding green-space pays tribute to  the urban architect and musician Claude Charpentier.

We both were happy to just walk the streets and stare at the buildings.

Yes there was a ceramic shop here, with lots of wonderful things that I had no way to get home.

I peered into every planted area that I saw.

Small...

Or large...

That's some crazy tree pruning.

And some crazy security fencing.

One of my favorite images of this walk.

Old meet new. New apologize to old.

And then we ended up here. And the surroundings got a little dicey. We were looking for a place for lunch and went down a few questionable side streets. Still we felt safe, after all it was daytime and there were two of us. It's also worth noting that all of Paris felt very safe. I would not have hesitated to wander the city alone (but thankfully didn't need to).

The last photo from Montmarte before we hopped back on the subway and headed towards home base (the Latin quarter)...

Stopping just short of "home" to do a little more exploring.

At the Terrain d'Aventures: "A unique and educational place, open 7 days a week, in the heart of Paris. The team of the sculptor Henri Marquet imagined a universe "halfway between the Wizard of Oz and Mario Bros", with innovative games. Here, freedom to play! The Adventure Park is open only to children, supervised by animators. It is organized as a course with micro-landscapes with varied reliefs. It leaves a large place to the greenery. Specially designed for the pleasure and fulfillment of children aged 7 to 11 , it promotes the development of their imagination and their physical abilities as well as their socialization." (source) Of course it wasn't actually open when we were there...unfortunately.

An under-development part of Terrain d'Aventures...

Plant bondage!

We then decided to walk over to the Louvre. While I had no need to go inside (a rabbit hole I simply did not have time for), I did want to see the famous I.M. Pei glass pyramid. In route we passed the Duluc Detective "The sign and doorway may look like part of a movie set, but they belong to one of the last — and oldest — private detective agencies in France."

The backside of the Louvre.

And the courtyard.

And then we passed through an opening and were here...

Another wonderful day walking the streets of Paris (in the winter) had come to a close...

Weather Diary, March 18: Hi 54, Low 41/ Precip: trace

All material © 2009-2018 by Loree Bohl for danger garden (dg). Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

My Winter Walk-Off, 2017 Style — downtown Portland

By now I'm sure many of you recognize the term "Winter Walk-Off" — but just in case here's the low-down: "leave the house, and share what can be seen within walking (or biking) distance of your home (if you want to drive to your walk destination that's OK too). Your post does not have to be about gardening or a travelogue (though I do like both), unless you want it to be. Maybe instead you will find some unusual patterns, interesting shadows, signs of spring, a favorite restaurant or shop, questionable landscaping, or local eyesores. Whatever, just keep your eyes and mind open, be creative, and have fun, but don't show anything from your own garden." The annual "Winter Walk-Off" is something Les (of A Tidewater Gardener) has hosted for several years now.

I was a little concerned that I wasn't going to be able to post to the walk-off this year, our non-stop rain has been so drastic that I wasn't willing to spare a dry minute to go for a walk. Instead I wanted to spend it working in my garden. However, due to issues with my new iPad, I found myself downtown earlier this week with a few dry minutes to spare!  See that building with the green-roof? That's the Portland Apple store, my destination. I'm photographing it from the parking garage across the street.

Once on the ground I took a right and headed toward the Willamette River, which divides Portland into west and east. I live on the east-side and downtown is on the west-side.

Portland is fancy enough to rate a Tiffany's, who knew?

Downtown Portland is studded with drinking fountains known as Benson Bubblers. Usually these are 4-bowl fountains, although this article does include the single bowls (as shown here) as being part of the Benson program.

I've happened by (and photographed) this empty courtyard before. It certainly looks like things should be happening here...

Lights, benches, planters.

The Aucuba are looking fabulous.

We inherited a couple of Pieris, most mid-century homes in Portland have them as foundation plantings. Ours our long gone (intentionally), but I had to stop and appreciate this one in full bloom.

Oh The Lotus! So much history. Andrew and I had cocktails here a couple of times when he was showing at an art gallery just around the corner. Now it's closed and maybe slated to be torn down.

Walking on, I came to the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. There were many inscriptions on the sides of the building, this one seemed particularly apt for our current situation.

Across the street are Lownsdale Square and Chapman Square, which became ground zero for Occupy Portland in 2011. Some of you may remember the image of a young lady (Liz Nichols) getting a pepper spray to the face. It's much quieter there now.

And there are Hellebores!

Ah, who knew?

Could it possibly be a Valentine's day left-over?

The Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building.

With Lagerstroemia (aka Crepe Myrtle).

Did we know how good we had it, back then?

The netting seems to be failing. Then again we have had the most miserable of winter conditions we've had to deal with for something like 30 years, everything's kind of failing at this point.

That's a happy little patch of green.

Moving on...every time I see big cement pipes like those I think what great planters they would make, tipped on end and planted with some trailing vine. If only!

Sad Phormium. Do they really think it's going to come back and look good?

We've finally made it to the river. It's extremely high (rain rain rain) and very muddy.

Of course you can't really see how muddy, but trust me.

That big planting circle, and one off in the distance, are our destinations.

The bamboo is certainly happy.

As are the Hellebores, I'm a little surprised and quite happy that they haven't been trashed by those who don't like nice things.

Surely I've noticed the tree on the right before? Nevertheless it's new to me now. Magnolia laevifolia, a favorite.

Love those cinnamon buds.

That's the Hawthorne Bridge in the background, Portland has 12 bridges that cross the Willamette River (that number includes a railroad bridge and a bridge closed to cars — pedestrian, bike and mass transit only).

Our ground is over-saturated, landslides and urban flooding are frequent issues right now.

The next planting circle...

Those tall palms (Trachycarpus fortunei) look to have seeded around a bit.

More Hellebores! (I never tire of them, do you?)

My friend, and fellow blogger, Lance Wright (Garden Riots) used to maintain these plantings as well as many others around the city. I asked him for ID on this "grass" and he says it's Carex oshimensis 'Evergold', which has reverted to "evergreen".

The blooms are fabulous!

The Daphne blooms and foliage seem quite at home mixed in with Yucca 'Color Guard'.

Lance also ID'd the blooming Magnolia, it's M. maudiae. I wish you could smell its lovely fragrance.

I want this tree in my garden!

A nice patch of Libertia, pretty much unfazed by our horrid winter.

A final glance before heading back for my "Apple" appointment...

Wait, we must pause to appreciate the blooming Camellia in the next block.

And here we are back at the far corner of the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building. This post is going to wrap up soon, I promise!

But first I had to share this eyesore (IMHO). Our Portland Building, by Michael Graves. We'll see more of it in just a bit, don't you worry.

Yes it's the Federal Building again, from across Terry Schrunk Plaza.

Portland's City Hall.

And the base of the Portland Building. That's Portlandia, she's made of copper.

The actual entrance is rather nondescript, and the building itself has turned into quite the money pit.

This is now a coffee shop, but I think it was once a transit stop. There may be another that's a flower shop. I'm certain I've read history on these structures and wish I could track it down now.

Well then, that was a nice walk. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Now here we are, at the Apple store and I need to get my iPad issues fixed. Ciao!

Weather Diary, March 16th: Hi 55, Low 37/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2017 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.