Saint-Denis (2003) and other Paris, France Off The Beaten Path Tips

Saint-Denis is a town of 87,000 inhabitants just outside Paris. Just like everything there, it has an ancient and a modern side. The former is best represented by the basilique de Saint-Denis, the latter by the famous Stade de France, the Parisian football stadium.
My parents and I visited only the church. This basilica is the place where all French kings and queens used to be crowned and as a matter of facts, its main attraction, beside all the Gothic architectural features, are the tombs of the royals.
I will not write much in this tip; you will find more explanations and photos in my Saint-Denis page (to come).

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Place de Catalogne lies in the quarter of Montparnasse, very close to the Gare Montparnasse (Montparnasse railway station) and to the Tour Maine-Montparnasse. The traffic over the square is heavy, however the modern elegance of the buildings all around, as well as the park not far from it, make Place de Catalogne a worth seeing place.
Moreover, this square owns a hidden jewel that even many Parisians don't know...

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The Echelles du baroque are a block of 272 flats built by Ricardo Bofill in 1983. They lie between place de Catalogne and rue du Château and are all covered with mirror glasses.

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The Jardin Atlantique lies close to the Gare Montparnasse. It is very suitable to families with children, since it has a structure where kids can have fun with water (has this got a specific name?), as you can see in the photos.
That day was very hot, so my mother and I took profit from the water, too, while my father didn't and photographed us.

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The Jardin des Serres d'Auteuil ("Garden of Auteuil Greenhouses") lies at the beginning of the Bois de Boulogne. It was build by Jean-Claude Formig? in 1898 and consists of two main parts: a garden with statues of poets and stones with lines of their poems engraved and the greenhouses themselves.
Beware that, since the plants kept in the greenhouses are tropical species, the air is very hot and humid, so you'd better wear comfortable clothes when you visit the greenhouses. In the third photo you see me drink from a fountain and this was before the visit of the plants, just to give you an idea of the climate.
To reach the garden, take metro line 10 to Porte d'Auteuil.

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Here you see some photos taken in the garden.
In the first photo portray me near the statue of the great French writer Victor Hugo (1802-85). I am probably miming a flying bird, but I don't know why.
The second picture shows a stone with these lines by Victor Hugo's poem Aux arbres ("To the trees"):
Quand je suis parmi vous, arbres de ces grands bois
Dans tout ce qui m'entoure et me cache ? la fois
Dans votre solitude o? je rentre moi-m?me
Je sens quelqu'un de grand qui m'?coute et qui m'aime
("When I am among you, trees of these large gardens
In everything that surrounds me and hides me at the same time
In your solitude where I return myself
I feel someone great who is listening to me and who loves me")
The third photo shows me next to a statue of the great Russian poet Aleksandr Sergeyeviè Puškin (1799-1837). The fourth portrays four lines from the poem Harmonie du soir ("Harmony of the evening") by Charles Baudelaire (1821-67)
Voici venir les temps où, vibrant sur sa tige,
Chaque fleur s'évapore ainsi qu'un encensoir,
Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir,
Valse mélancolique et langoureux vertiges
("Here are coming the times when, vibrating on its stalk,
Every flower evaporates like an incensory,
Sounds and scents turn in the air of the evening,
Melancholy valse and languishing dizziness")
The last pic is another view of the garden.

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The big tropical greenhouse in iron is 99 metres long and has a 16 metres high dome. In other greenhouses grow the flowers that decorate the city hall of Paris.

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Rue La Fontaine, in the Auteuil quarter (near the Serres d'Auteuil and the Bois de Boulogne), is a "street-museum" of Art Nouveau architecture. This street shows many buildings by the famous architect Hector Guimard, such as:
- the Castel Béranger, at the number 14. Guimard started building it in 1895 and used a vaste range of materials. He designed the interior, as well, however the public didn't accept easily this innovative style;
- the oeuvre des Orphelins Apprentis d'Auteuil ("work of the Auteuil orphan apprentices", at the number 40), with neo-Gothic forms that could be better accepted;
- the hôtel Mezzara, at the number 60, that still keeps the original furnishings.
The pictures in this tip refers to Castel Béranger.

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Here are two more photos of the Castel Béranger, plus two pictures of another of Guimard's buildings.

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If you like modern art, you should not miss entering the Magasins du Printemps in boulevard Haussmann! No, not to buy fashion stuff, but to observe and to take a picture of the great stain glass dome in Art Nouveau style (see the other photos of this tip).
It was done by glassmaker Brière and located there in 1923. It was taken into piece in 1939 to prevent its destruction. In 1973 Brière's grand-son restored the dome according to the original plans and in 1975 both the façade and the dome of this building were declared historic monuments.
The closest metro stop is Havre-Caumartin (lines 3 and 9).

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