Secret Paris: Flower Child

Oh the secrets that cities harbour! On our latest trip to Paris, we hopped over to the abandoned tracks of La Petite Ceinture in the 11th Arrondissement. The circular train that served Paris before the Metro, was discontinued in 1934, almost 80 years ago.

We were excited about visiting the tracks ever since a friend tipped us about them (thanks for the lead Deepthi 🙂 ). A decrepit urban space with overgrown weeds and flowers, it sounded right up our street. To our delight the tracks were perfect for spending a quiet afternoon away from the humdrum of the city.

Take the Metro to the Alexandre Dumas Station (Line 2). Walk on Rue De Bagnolet for 10 minutes till you see little road called Rue Florian on the right. Turn into Rue Florian and look for an open door in the wall. You might see a couple of friendly squatters, just walk past them to the tiny staircase leading to the tracks. Once you’re there, take a walk, explore the crumbling tracks, examine the street art, or admire the bright flowers. We spent a pleasant afternoon walking down the tracks and talking to a group of street artists who were painting a wall there.

The Tracks

Street Artists 

Of course one can’t spend a dreamy-eyed afternoon, speculating about a bygone age, without an outfit to boot. I wore a white tutu skirt made from a dozen layers of tulle (it’s Paris – you can get away with wearing tutus 😉 ) with a lacy white top.

I added a floral bandeau and some butterfly hair clips. I must give a shout-out to Crown and Glory’s hair accessories.I have such a weakness for floral crowns, and their online store has the most sumptuous headgear. What’s more, the accessories arrived at my doorstep packaged in delicate tissue with a hand-written note – it made me feel like Christmas came in early this year. I’m placing another order at Crown and Glory as I type this 🙂 I pulled together the uber-girly outfit with a pair of grey t-bar shoes and a pastel satchel.

We shot these pictures amidst the flowers growing wild all over the tracks. It would’ve been easy to shoot photos with just the flowers in the frame, but we wanted the decrepitude of the tracks to be part of this post. So we chose to include the littered tracks and the flowers in these frames. A resolutely urban space flirting with the pastoral – that’s La Petite Ceinture.

Skirt: Ebay (available here)

Top: H&M

Floral Bandeau and Butterfly clips : c/o Crown and Glory (available here)

Shoes: H&M

Satchel: Monsoon

The Tracks of La Petite Ceinture

Crown and Glory goodies

Flowers at the Tracks of La Petite Ceinture

The Tracks of La Petite Ceinture

Tutus make me happy 🙂

Check out the other interesting and offbeat things to do in Paris and France.

While in Paris, the best way to explore the city is The Paris Pass (use code JULY6 for 10% discount on 6-day passes and 6% on 3 and 4 day passes).