Cali-Parisien

There's a beach in Paris?

You would have to come see it for yourself (or a close look at some of our photos) to believe me. The first time I read about this in the papers when I was still back home I thought it was a joke.

July 21^st marked the beginning of "Paris Plage". Now an annual event in its fourth year, Paris Plage, was an ambitious project of the Mayor of Paris to close off a busy major road running through central Paris and create 2 miles of manmade beach along the right-bank of the Seine river. But not just sand (make that 2,000+ tons of fine sand), palm trees, lounge chairs, hammocks, sprinklers, games, shops, concerts, dance-lessons, even a 30m swimming pool.

It was quite an experience seeing the normally land-locked Parisians taking part in the beach culture as if it had been there all along; picnicking, sunning themselves, and enjoying the sand.

You can take a look at the City of Paris's program guide and a video here. Or click on the photo above for some of our photos.

posted by geek @ jeudi, septembre 01, 2005 0 comments