Yet another reason to love French pastries...

... or at least, French bakers' humour.

Bagatelle

The parc de Bagatelle is a beautiful little château designed by architect Bélanger in an English-style park that now forms part of the Bois de Boulogne. It was built in the 1770s for the comte d'Artois, allegedly the result of a bet with his sister-in-law Marie Antoinette.

The park is composed of woods, expanses of lawn, grottoes and ponds, a kitchen garden, and a particularly well-known rose garden. When I visited a few weeks ago, it was too late in the season to enjoy the full effect of the rose garden, but Bagatelle was still a delight. This post is mostly a celebration of fall textures and colours, and a little eccentricity, under hazy grey light.

Le Viaduc des arts

By happy accident, I stumbled upon the Viaduc des arts yesterday. 

It's a former rail bridge east of the Bastille that was transformed in the 90s into an elevated urban park (like the High Line in NYC), with shops and ateliers in the beautiful arches at street level. Along with the pleasure of strolling above the city, some buildings cleverly straddle the Viaduc; older neighbouring buildings from the days of the rail line present interesting backs and profiles. The Viaduc almost imperceptibly ends at ground level where it connects to another network of parks.