Traversée 1 - part 3

... from Pont de Bercy to Bois de Vincennes.

We continue our route from metro station Quai de la Gare. We cross the bridge over the River Seine.

On our left we see the remarkable offices of the Government Department of the Treasury. Also one of Mitterrands grands projets. It is an arch with one leg in the water. It was taken into service in 1988 after the Treasury workers had finally agreed to vacate their offices in the Louvre.

We cross the bridge and turn right and left crossing the Quai de Bercy and walk towards the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy.

The building is covered with steep lawns (8 ha; 20 acres) dates back to 1983 and can hold 17,000 spectators.

We go around the sports arena for a quarter and descend towards the Parc de Bercy. This was once the location for warehouse in which the city's wine stock was kept brought here by river barges. It is now a parc with some peculiarities. Neat flower beds and carefully shaped hedges, an orangerie and exhibition spaces.

At Rue Kessel we turn left. We continue straight on. On the Place Lachambeaudie we see an old Fire Station on our left and in the middle of the square stands the modest Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativité from 1875, which was built on the spot of the parish church of the Bercy village after its destruction during the Paris Commune.

We continue along rue Proudhon under the railway lines. On the other side we cross a bit to the right into the rue des Fonds Verts. After that we cross rue de Charenton (with some facades typical for the old outer quarters or Feaubourgs) and turn right into Rue des Wattignies and immediately right and left again into the rue de Meuniers. Beyond Avenue du General-Michel-Bizot we cross a little bridge over a disused train station and arrive at the Boulevard Poniatovski.

We are now outside the Paris city walls of 1844. De boulevards around this core of Paris are all named after Field Marshalls. The reinforcements were taken down between 1920 and 1924.

We turn left on Boulevard Poniatovski and walk up till the Porte de Reuilly where we cross the boulevard to our right in the direction of place du Cardinal-Lavigerie. We get to yet another large square where keep to our left. We enter the Bois de Vicennes forest through the Route de la Croix Rouge. Underneath us we here the roaring traffic of the Boulevard Pereferique (Ring Road).

We then get to a lake, Lac Daumesnil. The official route turns left here goes straight to the metro station of Porte Doree, where Traversee 1 ends.

We turn left at the banks of the lake and start following route GR 14. Near the little bridge we see the Boudhist Centre on our right, comprising a Tibetan temple, a Vietnamese chapel and an international Pagode

.

We continue along the shore of the lake, cross a little bridge (great view over the lake and the Temple d'Amour on the island of Reuilly) and turn right on the second path up. We cross the Ceinture du Lac Daumesnil and Avenue de Saint Maurice. We follow the red/white signs of the GR 14 just beyond the Route de L'Asile Nationale where we turn left following the Grand Circuit (yellow/red signposted) of the Bois de Vincennes. In a northerly direction we pass the Avnue Daumesnil again and finally arrive at the northern edge of the forest along the Avenue des Minimes. This leads us to the Chateau de Vincennes. At the Chateau we turn left into the Avenue de General de Gaulle.

The Chateau dates back to the Middle Ages. It was once a royal residence, became later a prison, a porcelain factory, a weapons dump and a military academy. The Tower was completed in 1370. It was here that the english king Henry V died.

We walk around the castle and arrive at the metro station Chateau de Vincennes, where our walk ends.

last revision: 10/12/06

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