Yesterday was amazing. We woke up on hot Monday morning in our studio apartment, hungover as ever from our big Sunday night out in the Bastille bar area (shoutout to Kelsey Dolby for the bar recommendations) and decided we needed to up and get out and about. It was a public holiday in France, so no one was working Monday. We wanted somewhere to swim or lay out, and although there are public pools all over the city, including the Josephine Baker (which actually is supposed to be extremely cool and right on the Seine River) everything was extremely crowded due to the holiday off. We knew there were also the Paris-Plages (beaches with imported fake sand all along the Seine river) that we could lay out in the sun at, and even though we assumed they would be packed with tourists and maybe a little pricey, we needed to get out in the sun and relax.
Just a few Metro exits from our apartment is the Bercy Village, a very beautiful but very Americanized, but still very beautiful shopping area that strangely reminds me a lot of a very nice ski resort outdoor shopping center like Squaw Valley!
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Here was a string of restaurants, ice-cream and clothing store chains such as Quicksilver, Ray-Ban, Roxy etc. Naturally we got an Amorino gelato on our way through and made our way to the Seine.
When we arrived at the Seine and started our walk towards the plage, we came across an strip of beach clubs, bars, restaurants and swimming pools with music playing and people relaxing in the sun. It was exactly what we were looking for... we were in heaven. Right along the Gare d'Austerlitz near the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand in the 13th arrondissement, is a beautiful strip of trendy beer gardens, vendors and beach bars perfect for our holiday off.
Most restaurants also have a corresponding boat-turned-restaurant or boat-turned-bar floating on the water. The strip is between the Pont de Tolbiac and Pont de Bercy bridges.
Our favorites/ what we will be back to try: Batofar, La Dame de Canton, Nix Nox and La Petit Bain which is a floating building that holds free concerts on the water.
And what was even better... no tourists! (besides us of course but do we really count?) We went straight to the sun, order a few drinks at La Vagalame and relaxed on the boardwalk until the sun went down.
All in all a great day off. Love you already Paris!