Chelsea London Paris
May, 2006
 

June 1st was our day of leisure and I headed out of the hotel after breakfast thinking I would just walk and see what I could see. Of course a trip to Paris is not the same without one or three pictures of the Eiffel Tower. I passed the gardens at the Louvre and saw along the water some sort of garden show that was setting up. It was scheduled to open the next day but since I was free today I thought I would see if I could get in using my Garden Writers Press Pass. After a short while I was in and walking around. What a wonderful little show this is going to be and I was so lucky to see it and get in to take some shots. I loved the flower pots and the watering cans…boy do I covet that purple watering can! Then after that I thought perhaps I could get into the new Orangery on the grounds that just opened up to see the Monet works that have been hidden for years. Again my pass came in very handy and instead of waiting about 2-3 hours to get in, I was put in a line that took about 10 minutes to get in. Incredible to see these and I encourage you all to see them if you can. They have to be at least 40 feet long. I then headed to the mall under the Louvre to visit L’Occitane to pick up some goodies for Tom when I discovered that they had a very special garden built in the Palais Royal that was over that weekend. Wow, I had better get over there to see it. It was beautiful and full of plants that they use in their products. On the Sunday all the plants would be sold for just 5 euros each and all money donated to a charity. Imagine all those roses and lavender going for 5 euros a pot. After this day I was feeling pretty happy so decided to head back as it was raining a bit and I wanted a nap. Very close to our hotel, there was a church, kind of looks like the Parthenon with all the pillars. On the front steps of this church were planters filled with herbs. I could not find out who planted them but you can see that they are set up to be self watering so someone took great pains to lay this out. Could be for local restaurants or perhaps to cut and sell. I took a couple of pictures inside the building as well. There are no windows but for four very large roof top round windows…you can see a glimpse of one…a beautiful church.