Heritage days or the perfect days to stroll

Before this year I had never visited anything during Heritage days. I don’t really know why, maybe I was just lazy because I thought it will be too crowded. When you think about it, it’s really stupid when you know that it’s the only days when you can stroll in gardens and private mansions usually closed to the public. Anyway I finally did it and I’m very happy about it!

We decided to go see the Ambassy of Romania and by the end of the day we ended up visiting 3 embassies, one town hall and 3 ministries. We hadn’t plan anything and this is why it was so great, plus we didn’t have to queue up at all! We started to walk on St-Dominique which would deserve to have its own blog post, because there is so much to see. There are delicious pastry shops after pastry shops like Gâteaux Thoumieux, Le Moulin de la Vierge, Aux Merveilleux de Fred and many more (yes I only talked about bakeries, you can easily see what interests me the most between shopping and eating).

hôtel Saint Dominique

As mentioned, we started then by visiting the Ambassy of Romania which is located in a wonderful private mansion: l’hôtel de Behague.

A little further in rue St-Dominique, there is the Hôtel de Monaco where the ambassador of Poland lives. This private mansion was even more luxurious than the previous one.

Hôtel de Monaco – 57 rue St-Dominique – 75007 PARIS

Not far from here on rue de Grenelle, we visited l’Hôtel d’Estrées where the ambassador of Russia lives. It’s kinda hard to imagine that someone is actually living his daily life there.

Hôtel d’Estrées – 79 rue de Grenelle – 75007 PARIS

After the embassis, we went to the town hall of the 7th arrondissement (l’Hôtel de Villars) before visiting a few ministries.

Inside, there was nothing worth mentioning because all the decoration from the 18th century has been removed but the English garden, one of the biggest of the faubourg St Germain (a bit less than 4000 m2) was worth it!

Time to visit some ministries now with l’Hôtel du Châtelet where the Labor Ministry is.

Do you see the guy posing ridiculously on the picture ? This is the Boyfriend… I only noticed him when I looked at my pictures several hours after.

Hôtel du Châtelet (ministère du travail) – 127 rue de Grenelle – 75007 PARIS

Another private mansion, another ministry : l’Hôtel de Castriesn the home of the Ministry of Housing (pun intended) and here again they have a huge garden. When you think that in Paris we all live crammed on top of each other and we fight to have a patch of grass when this exists! Yes I must admit, even though seeing all these private mansions made me dream, it also made me depressed (well I’m French so yeah I like complaining).

L’Hôtel de Castries (ministère du logement) – 76 rue de Varenne – 75007 PARIS

Finally we ended this day with the Ministry of Agriculture which is in the Hôtel de Villeroy. Finishing with this one was the best idea because Agriculture rimes with food (in French it actually does)!

Hôtel de Villeroy (ministère de l’agriculture) – 78 rue de Varenne 75007 PARIS

By visiting private mansions after private mansions, we saw so many nice buildings, colorful doors, dreamy flower shops and I even discovered this hidden gem under a bright sunshine!

After a wonderful day like this one I can tell you that I can’t wait for Heritage Days 2016. And you, what did you visit ? I need to start preparing my program for next year. :)