Paris is a city of serendipity. It's easy, as we did today, to start with no specific plan and end up having had a day of wonderful new discoveries. Crossing over the bridge at the far end of the Ile St. Louis, we walked down along the Seine. When the pedestrian walkway ended we crossed over and walked a block in to discover the Gare de Lyon right in front of us. The main floor was full of the bustle of people coming and going on the pointy-nosed, highspeed trains but upstairs under the high glass roof, the waiting room and its restaurant, Le Train Bleu, was just as it had been during the Belle Epoque in the 1890's. After expensive coffees, though worth it to get this picture of elegance, we headed back toward the Seine and continued on into the Parc de Bercy, a 
modern park as large as the Tuileries. There was much to inspire my Charlestown roof deck, though I may have to settle for a smaller size watering pot than this one in the photo on the right. The pot turned out to be some sort of garden storage and was just one of the many intriguing features of the park which also included a small pond with a family of baby ducklings, a little glade of birch trees and even a small vineyard. Just beyond the park we discovered 
another newly developed area called Bercy Village, which included a movie theater, office buildings and a small marketplace similar to Boston's Quincy Market. The shops had us wondering whether we'd suddenly been transported to the Gardener in Berkeley or to any one of the ubiquitous Restoration Hardwares, but we did find the requested house numbers for 1510 Hinesburg Road and Bingham Brook Farm. We ended the day on the new Meteor Metro line, a completely computerized train that seemed really high speed and high design. And we were treated to this sunset to end the day of wandering and surprises.