Paris Journal: Visiting the fox and the crow

The Jardin du Ranelagh, or Ranelagh Garden, is a beautiful park with graceful statues and majestic trees, and in recent years it has been made better than ever since a roadway that formerly bisected the park has been blocked off to cars. It was a simple, inexpensive adjustment involving the installation of bollards at both ends of the road, leaving the pavement in place for people to walk on or for setting up special events. The adjustment has made a world of difference in the calm, beauty, and usability of this park in the 16th arrondissement.

Meditation, by Tony Noel.

The sign at the entrance to the park is informative. Here's a translation:

Lord Ranelagh [1641-1712], an Irish music lover, had a rotunda built for concerts on his property in London, in 1750. An analogous establishment, permitted in 1774 at the location of today's garden, disappeared in 1858 during the renovation of the Bois de Boulogne.

In 1860, Prefect Haussmann (1809-1891) charged Jean-Charles Alphand (1817-1891) with the task of redefining the footprint of the garden. It was shaded by majestic trees: a Byzantium hazelnut 20 meters tall; some chestnut trees from India, including one that is over 200 years old; a curious plane tree with an "elephant foot"; and a Caucasian wingnut 30 meters tall.

This garden, equipped with a bandstand and a puppet theater, is decorated with numerous statues: Cain (1871) by Joseph-Michel Caillé, Meditation (1882) by Tony-Noel, Fisherman collecting the head of Orpheus in his nets (1882) by Louis-Eugene Longepied, the monument (1984) in homage to Jean de La Fontaine by Charles Corréia, and The Vision of the Poet (1902) by Georges Barreau.

The monument to La Fontaine is one of our favorite statues. It illustrates his popular fable about the fox and the crow. That was our first pause in this park.

Monument to La Fontaine

Then we walked all around that elegant green space, taking in the flowerbeds which are being converted to native plants and insect habitats, gazing at the statues, and admiring the enormous trees.

Nothing remains of the dancing and music establishment of the 18th Century because the buildings were destroyed by a hurricane in 1818. Hurricanes do happen in France.

The Musée Marmottan Monet faces this park; this is the museum that we recommend to those who want to see important Impressionist paintings. But yesterday's weather was too beautiful; we did not want to be inside, especially after working at the computers for hours.

Flowerbed with native plants and insect habitats.

The park is situated atop a large hill that we had to climb since our apartment is in former swampland. We'd climbed up the Rue de Boulainvilliers, and when it was time to return, our downhill trek was along Rue des Vignes, once the site of the vineyards of the village of Passy.

Once upon a time, there was a chateau (built in the 1300s) in the Boulainvilliers area. Its grounds were vast formal gardens on the steep slope down to the Seine. The chateau and gardens were significantly improved in the 1700s by Samuel Bernard, a banker who purchased the place for his mistress, Manon Dancourt.

Judging by the drawings of the chateau in the French Wikipedia, this chateau and its gardens would have been something grand to see. The property was broken up and subdivided in 1825; streets were laid out, and the large estate was no more.

Theatre Ranelagh on the steep slope by Rue des Vignes.

As we passed the Radio France building on our way back to the Pont de Grenelle, we were leaving what had been the chateau grounds, heading back over to the once marshy fields of Grenelle.

The walk was almost 6 miles, so in the evening we decided to dine in the immediate neighborhood. We checked out Au Rendez-Vous des Amis, which had a tempting blanquette de veau as the special of the day a few evenings ago. But alas the special was Andouillette and that didn't appeal last night. So we turned the corner to check out the specials at Le Café du Commerce.

Voila! Sole meuniere for only 26 euros! We had no reservation, but I told Tom I would sit anywhere, even in the basement, if I could have that sole meuniere.

Beautifully prepared, deboned, and re-plated sole meuniere at Le Café du Commerce.

We were shown to a table on the 1st level up, and all was well. The sole was delicious, and it was beautifully deboned and re-plated for us by the head waiter. The accompaniments were steamed potatoes and spinach. Le Café du Commerce succeeds again!

Here are some more photos from the day:

The steep slope makes for some interesting streetscape along Rue des Vignes.

The Gare de Boulainvilliers is reminiscent of the old chateau that once stood near here.
This is a station of the RER C commuter train that served the Universal Exposition of 1900
by taking many thousands of passengers to the Champ de Mars.