Trip to Bercy

Earlier this week, one of our class excursions was to the area of Paris known as Bercy. It quickly became one of my favorite excursions I’ve done through this class mainly due to the fact that it looked different from the majority of the rest of Paris. It was a lot newer in terms of construction and had a different feel from the stone buildings that are around the rest of Paris. One of my favorite places we went that day was the National Library of Paris. I remember learning about this building during the spring semester, never thinking I’d go and visit it. It’s so much bigger in person with its four research centers on each corner made to look like open books and the actual library itself was under those research centers with a large courtyard in the center full of trees and plants which almost made me feel like I was in a tree house. It also had an exhibition of two globes commissioned by Louis XIV which were very cool to see. It amazed me that something almost 300 years old was so well preserved. It was also funny to see how people viewed and mapped the world 300 years ago.

Another thing in Bercy I was able to do was go through the old warehouses in Bercy village. They were once a place where wine was packaged and stored and brought into the city. They now have been repurposed as a place for restaurants and shopping. I think that is a great idea because it brings people into this area and reuses these buildings that would’ve fallen into disrepair otherwise. It gave these buildings a new life and also teaches people what this area of Paris was once used for. Overall I loved Bercy because it blends the older, lesser known history of the area with new architecture that has brought people into the area that otherwise wouldn’t have thought of this place as one to live or visit.

Attached below in order are pictures of the National Library of Paris, the Globe Exhibit and the Bercy Village shopping center.