Square Lamartine – Paris 16th

Once you’ve had your fill of the the views of the Eiffel Tower from Trocadero you might want to escape the crowds and find somewhere quiet to relax. If your budget allows, you could sit in one of the cafes at Place du Trocadéro or sample a classically French patisserie at Patisserie Carette (WARNING: their website auto-plays hideous music). Granted, they are probably not the quietest of places to take a load off your feet. My preferred resting place near Trocadero is Square Lamartine, 10 minutes walk from Trocadero along Avenue Georges Mandel. It’s the ideal spot if you have kids, don’t mind screaming kids, or if you hate the smokers who occupy the terrace seats of cafes (I fit into the latter category). So get your patisserie to go and sit under the shady trees of the square.

This is an especially good place to stop if you have young kids as they can play on the swings and train. I love how the City of Paris is now labelling all the park playground equipment with recommended ages. I wonder if they did that after some kind of incident.

You don’t need to worry about buying water before you get here because you can get fresh water from the artesian well which has been here since 1855. I didn’t try the water but there was a queue of people filling up water bottles with it so it must be ok to drink. Artesian water is supposed to be cleaner than river water so I say go for it. As a side note, did you know artesian wells are named after the former French province of Artois (in the north of France) where many artesian wells were drilled in the 12th century by monks? No? Did you need to know that? Probably not.