OK, Paris is one of the most touristic cities in the world, and maybe finding secret places could sound almost impossible. But I have tried, and I think I have done it! It was my first time in this wonderful city and I wanted to combine the must-see places with others that only locals know.
I have waited to go to Paris for a long time, because I wanted to spend more than a weekend there. I knew that it has so much to offer, and I did not want to visit just the typical attractions, but also local places. At the end, I think I have done it: I found four places that I really liked, and that not much tourists visit in Paris.
Romantic park: Buttes-Chaumont
The first park I visited is the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, reachable by the 7B metro line (1,9 Euro for a 1-way ticket).
It is a huge park, with bridges and green areas where the locals go jogging or go for a walk with their pets. The two times I was there I have not seen any (other) tourists. The park was built in a stone hill which is surrounded by a small lake. Because of that, there is an artificial cave with a river which crosses the park. In the middle of the lagoon there is a big rock formation and on top of it, a very nice and romantic Greek pavilion.
Movies, restaurants and fun summer
The second place I found very interesting and not really touristic was the Bassin de la Villette, located very close from the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, by the subway station Jaurés (metro line 2 and 5, 1,9 Euro for a 1-way ticket).
It is a long canal that gets water from the Saint-Martin Canal, and which is surrounded by restaurants, bars and 2 movie theatres, one on each side. There is also a small ship on which the visitors can cross from one side to the other, for free. The atmosphere of this place is great, with lots of young local people around, ready to watch a movie, visit a store or to drink/eat something at the nearby restaurants.
I was there just at night, to have dinner and watch a movie, and I can say that the gastronomical offer is wide and varied: from fast-food-like restaurants where for 7 Euro one can have a good and tasty portion of pasta and a soft drink, to exclusive bars where no cocktail is cheaper than 15 Euro.
I was also told that every summer, the municipality installs an urban beach in this place, so visitors can swim and enjoy the Parisian sun at the sides of the Bassin de la Villette.
Jesus´ crown of thorns and pieces from the Holly Cross for just 5 Euro
I think that everyone knows that Notre Dame is one of the main attractions in Paris, right? But what not many people know is that in the Treasury, they have two of the most important relics of the Catholic Church: Pieces of the Holly Cross, and Jesus´ crown of thorns.
The story goes like this: King Louis IX brought this two objects from the Crusades in Middle East in 1238, and built a church to guard and deploy them: the Saint Chappelle, located very close to Notre Dame in Paris. But with time, they were moved to Notre Dame.
Nowadays, at the right corridor of Notre Dame, visitors can pay 5 Euro entrance to the Treasury, and admire these relics. The Treasury is really small and no other piece pays off for the visit. Maybe because of that not many people come here.
Urban hidden park: Jardin Atlantique
This park is, literally, built in the roof of one of the main train stations in Paris: Gare Montparnasse. One should access it through an elevator, which looks really nothing like a park entrance. It is located in the crossing of the Avenue du Maine with Rue du Commandant René Mouchotte.
After taking that elevator to the street level, one gets to the rail station roof, where some buildings, a sport club and also this park are located. The park was opened in 1994, so is one of the newest in the whole Paris.
From the people that I could observe there, it is mostly visited by parents with children, and locals looking for a quiet place in the middle of the city, but no tourists.
It is called Jardin Atlantique because of the kind of trees one can find there: Pines, which are also common at the Atlantic coast of Brittany.
One can combine a visit to this park with a visit to the Montparnasse Cemetery, located close by, and say hello to some of the prominents buried in that place, like the feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, the philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Susan Sonntag, the Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz and the Latin-American writer Julio Cortázar.
Links of interest
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