A secret garden hiding in plain sight...
Ensconced over the heads of motorists, pedestrians, and unsuspecting tourists...
Perched as high as the egg-shaped armadillo roofs of Paris' iconic "batiments hausmannien."
The Promenade Plantée, which I translate to mean "plant-y walk," is the world's first elevated park according to Aviewoncities.com. The arcades below were turned into shops and galleries.
This abandoned viaduct used to be an eyesore, but see what some thoughtful landscaping can do.
It starts from the Opera Bastille and the trail goes all the way through to the Forest of Vincennes. We drive by here a lot when we visit friends in the 12th district.
The weather was awesome and we had just enough time to go to our favorite chinese restaurant in the 13th and scour the Surcouf below the promenade for an elusive gadget case. H gave me a little lecture on the unsuitableness of short dresses on scooters but all was soon forgiven, and everything was working out great.
It was shaping up to be a typical romantic day in Paris.
But it all ground to a halt when we heard a screetch and three loud bangs coming from below. It was an accident, H told me. I couldn't look. From the side I could see some people walking away as fast as they could, while some gravitated closer. Burnt rubber had left an inky stain on the pavement. Glass everywhere. A man had planted himself at the crossroad to direct traffic, then H noticed someone had started CPR on the pedestrian in the gutter. "That's so stupid, sooo stupid," he kept muttering. "There is water in the gutter, and it's red. They're making it worse!"
I saw a man raising his hands in the air and clasping his head as if the world had crashed around him. He was twisting away from the wreck. I saw a terrified young woman pushing a baby carriage, but all the while her head was turned towards the person in gutter. It is a sad and scary thing, but from the height where we stood I wonder now how much smaller all our troubles might seem to someone watching from much, much higher.
Perhaps like H and I, every one in this tableau had been looking up at the blue sky just seconds before, thinking how wonderful the day was and how it can't get any better.
We left at ten before five in the afternoon, according to the sundial, and spent the rest of our time with Mia who lived a corner away from the promenade.
It was one of those moments that made you think about how you want to spend all the remaining sunny afternoons of your life.
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