Parc Georges-Brassens
From Paris Hotels Reviews
Parc Georges-Brassens
The main entrance of the Parc Georges-Brassens, on rue des Morillons (daily dawn – dusk; M° Convention/Porte –de-Vanves), is franked by two bronze bulls. The old Vaugirard abattoir was transformed into this park in the 1980s, and named after the legendary postwar poet-singer-satirist, who lived nearby at 42 villas Santos-Dumont. The abattoir’s original clock tower remains, surrounded by the pond, and a park is a delight, especially for children – attraction include puppets and rocks and merry-go-rounds for the kids, a mountain stream with pines and birch trees, beehives and a tiny terraced vineyard, a climbing wall and a garden of scented herbs and shrubs designed principally for the blind (best in late spring). The congregated pyramid with a helter-skelter-like spiral is a theatre, the Silvia-Montfort.
On Saturdays and Sundays, take a look in the sheds of the old horse market between the parks and rue Brancion, to the east, where dozens of book dealers set out their stock. On the west side of the park, in the secluded garden in passage Danztig, off rue Danztig, stands an odd polygonal building known as La Ruche, or the Beehive, after its honeycomb – like cells radiating from the central staircase. It started life as an Eifel – designed pavilion for the 1990 world fair, showcasing the finest wines, after which it was taken down whole and resurrected here as studio space. It became home to Ferdinand Léger, Modigliani (briefly), Chagall, Soutine, Ossip Zadkine and many other artists, mainly Jewish refugees from programs in Poland and Russia. Léger, evoking the poverty, recalls how he was invited to lunch one day by four Russian residents who had just made a few francs selling cat pelts. The meal was the cats, dismembered and fricasseed in vodka. “It burnt your mouth and it stank,” he noted, “but it was better than nothing.” It’s still something of a Tower of Babel these days, with Irish, American, Italian and Japanese artists in residence.
