By now, everyone in our group knows that the French are masters of green spaces. In this post, I’ll share a few of those spaces. Then, I want to look at other areas, outside of the natural world, where the color green reigns supreme in Paris.
Here are a couple of places I found during my own explorations.
Clearly, there are great efforts to utilize space for plants on shops and apartment buildings. Notice I said ‘on’ and not ‘in’. Rarely have I seen plants inside of buildings. Usually the plants are hanging off the sides of balconies, growing up the walls, or placed strategically outside for esthetics.
On a trip with Dr. Smith, the group encountered more green spaces after leaving the Bibliotheque National de France. The figures here lined a giant green space on each side of a walkway. I’ll add that this walkway led us into yet another garden.
As we briefly traveled this week, here are some of the areas where green stood out to me.
Greenery around the fountain and as the backdrop for the area. This is probably the first place where I think green was growing where it wasn’t supposed to. Or maybe it was? I’m not sure. The grass appears to be overgrown by this sculpture. The fact that I’m not really sure just speaks to how amazing the French are at the green game.
This shop stood out to me in La Marais. It was across the street from the falafel place where Dr. Smith bought us all a meal.
At the park near Places Des Vosges, still in La Marais, the greenery was impressive. The juxtaposition between the brown dirt and green grass highlights the structure and thoughtfulness behind this green space. In America, I believe little would want to see grass, cobblestones, brick, or some other kind of walkway in place of the dust. I can understand that choice. However, dirt is pretty easy to maintain and it’s very cost effective.
These walkways around the fountain
We all took photos with this sculpture as the backdrop.
Also, in street furniture.
And in design choices, which really a category I made up. Any of these pics could fit into a category above.
I don’t have any pictures of it, but I’ve seen many women wearing green dresses. I have hundreds of photos of green things in Paris. A lot of stuff here is brown or beige. I think this makes the green stand out so much more. It’s the color green more in use than any other color? I can’t say for sure but it feels like it is!