Apr 17, 2010

Bibliothèque nationale de France

This morning, I went for a movie at the MK2 cinema next to the national library, also called BNF or Bibliothèque François Mitterand. This is my favorite cinema because the chairs are so comfy (by designer Martin Szekely) and usually, no crowd here, so you won't ever be forced to sit in the first row and spend 2 hours with your head half bent to the wrong side to watch the movie. I like to go to the 1st film of the day around 10am, there's usually hardly 10 persons, so it's almost like I have the theater for myself :)

The library consists of 4 L-form buildings to be like 4 open books. In the middle of the esplanade, there's a mini forest hidden in a lower area, also part of the library. On nice summer days, you can chill out on the boardwalk esplanade. (tip: they sell Ben & Jerry's in the lobby of the theater)

This area has been developing lately. Near the BNF, other interests are the pedestrian bridge Simone de Beauvoir and the floating swimming pool Josephine Baker.

 You can access this bridge from the BNF's esplanade. On the other side, you'll arrive in the garden of Bercy which is very crowded on sunny days. It's also a newly developed area, Bercy Village/ Cour St Emilion. Ancient wine cellars have been rehabilitated into shops and restaurants. On weekends, it has a crowded trendy ambiance. (tips: there's also ice cream on this side at Amorino, who sells italian gelati. And a very good french restaurant "L'Auberge Aveyronnaise". More on these two in a future post)

If the garden in Bercy is too crowded, you can try to come back on
this side and stroll along the Seine.

If you want to visit this area, you can take the metro line 14 which stops at both Cour St Emilion and Blibliothèque François Mitterand.

3 comments:

Danidan said...

Super reporter Virginia!
Très intéressantes toutes ces informations.
Je confirme l'auberge Aveyronnaise est un excellent restaurant.
J'ai comme l'impression que tu as un faible pour les glaces italiennes Amorino.

Roxy said...

Nice one!

However, the theater is likely to be crowded in the evening ... especially for any recently released big success film ... (just as simple information ...)

Superbes photos et présentation très sympathique du quartier! Thumbs up! Can't wait for next one (je suis très mauvaise élève en ce qui me concerne ... shame on me).

MerveillesbyEstelle said...

Excellent reportage! Je ne penses pas que j'ai fait attention a la bibliotheque. tres sympa quartier:) a l'auberge Averyonnaise...il fallait que tu parles de bouffe;)

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