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Showing posts with label Puteaux Island Pool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Puteaux Island Pool. Show all posts

Sunday, October 7, 2018

Visiting the Bagatelle Gardens and the Puteaux Island Pool in Paris (France) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Bagatelle Gardens and the Pûteaux Island Pool in Paris (France) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

To go to the Bagatelle Gardens, my husband Laurent and I drove down the Avenue Charles de Gaulle to reach the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, known as Etoile on the Métro line Number 1.

There are 12 large avenues that radiate from the Arc de Triomphe that lead to almost all points in France it seems. 

Merging into the traffic circle is hard at the Arc de Triomphe.  Parisians seem to want everyone to take a tourist bus or the Métro to get to downtown Paris.  And, once you are in the circle, Parisian drivers make it difficult to get to your exit, so you have to keep driving around the Arc de Triomphe.  Of course, there is a lot of beeping and swearing in French done, too.

Once we got to our exit, we drove through the Bois de Boulogne (Boulogne Forest) to reach the Bagatelle Gardens, famous for its roses.

The Maréchal d’Estrées built the Bagatelle Gardens and its pavillon in 1720.  The Bagatelle Gardens were famous for romantic trysts – perhaps after a day’s worth of hunting in the Bois de Boulogne.

The French Revolutionaries spared the Bois de Boulogne while it was razing other buildings and parks.  They probably recognized its therapeutic value after a day of denunciations.

Parisians from the chic Western suburbs and inhabitants from Paris’s 16th arrondisement treat the Bagatelle Gardens like their own private garden.

You had to pay a small fee to enter the Garden, but air fragrant with roses made you forget that you lived in a big city.

I walked to the Bagatelle Gardens about three times a week when Florence was a baby.  I got my exercise, and Florence got her outing.  The warm sun always made the flowers smell great there. 

You can buy ice cream, sodas, and casseroles in the Garden’s cafés and restaurants.

I used to sometimes eat lunch in the Bagatelle Gardens after going to the pool on the Ile-de-Pûteaux (Pûteaux Island Pool). I went back to the Bagatelle Gardens for lunch to regain my strength and stamina after childbirth. 

Many cities could put together similar “green and recreation” spaces with a little effort in the US, too. 

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books




Ruth Paget Selfie