Of parcs...

Okay, everyone, I've found it: the most beautiful spot in Paris. Yes, hard to believe, I know. But what may be even harder to believe is that it is far away from Notre Dame, L'Arc de Triomphe, and even the Jardin de Luxembourg, the famous palace and gardens of Marie de Medici. Yes, to find it you have to go way out into the 19th arrondissement, far removed from the haut-culture et chique boutiques of the centre ville. But any walk or metro trip to the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont is worth the visit, for it is, as I said, the most beautiful spot in the City of Light.

For where else, I ask you, can boast a crumbing greco-style gazebo atop atop a rocky, wooded cliff, the view from which allows sensual pleasures full and free reign? Where else can one wander through hidden grottos loathe to display their hidden cache of pools and waterfalls? Where else can one (literally, in my case) stumble across a peacock being pursued by the plump and playful fingers of a curious toddler? Where else can one cross a scenic footbridge twenty-five feet off the ground that joins two wooded hills in harmonious majesty? Where else can one climb endless flights of stony stairways hidden among flowering bushes and overshadowing trees? Where else can one choose to get lost among giggling, screaming children on swings and jungle gyms, or take a seat underneath the shade of a sprawling chestnut to watch three baguette-laden French septagenarians discuss, perhaps, the rising price of their purchases, or else revel in the silence from a perch at the top of a wooded butte? I have found no such other place in all of Paris, and though I ALWAYS lose my sense of direction in this parc (no grid-layout here), I never regret spending a few extra minutes searching for one of the numerous exits.