Travel Tips

Paris is not famous for its 400 gardens and parks. But it is a pity because the Town has an army of gardeners who plant, change and manage several tons of flowers throughout the capital.
Each small piece of grass is cured with care.
Paris has 2 large green areas : Bois de Boulogne at the West and Bois de Vincennes at the East. There are within the city several large gardens : Buttes Chaumont, Luxembourg, Montsouris, Tuileries, plenty of average dimensions (Monceau, Champs Elysées, Trinité, ...) and numerous small size gardens but always pretty.

The Parc floral of Vincennes is marvellous and huge parc in the East of Paris (Metro : Chateau de Vincennes or RER Vincennes).
Cost : 1.50€ or reduced tariff : 0.75€.
Thematic gardens and some attractions : music festivals, puppet shows.
Rather unknown by tourists.
www.parcfloraldeparis.fr
To link with the pictures on the top.

The Parc Floral has some tenants. This one is a peacock which wants to show its marvellous feathers.

During the love season they present to the visitors the eyes of their tail. If an other male or even a pigeon approaches, they make a noise of rattlesnake.

See the map of the park at the bottom of this travelogue.

In the past, the vineyards covered the Montmartre Hill between the windmills.
This one is the last.
It is at the corner of rue des Saules and rue Saint Vincent.
The harvest is organized each year in October. The wine is bad but expensive because it is rare.

Located South of Paris (métro : Porte d'Orléans or Cité Universitaire). Close to the University City which shelters the foreign students.

It is one of the largest park of the capital.

It is discretly crossed by the RER (metro).

The name comes from a legend : barbarian invaders had camped here and were obliged to eat what they found : mice (=souris).

Do not miss the neighbor Cité Florale, hidden at 5 mn walk (see the travelogue "Butte aux Cailles")

When it was inaugurated (during Napoleon 3th period), the lake suddently became empty for a mysterious reason. The engineer was so upset, he suicided.

It worths a visit especially on Springs and Summer.

Located between Louvre and Concorde, the Garden of Tuileries is a free permanent exibit of statues.

The plants have few place in it and on my advice, it is a bit dusty in Summer.

Nethertheless, it allows to mix the charm of a quiet walk near the River Seine and the pleasure to shop Rue de Rivoli.

The tourists visit the Avenue but forget the Garden which is on both sides of the Champs Elysées between the Concorde and Rond-Point des Champs Elysées.

There are here some Pavilions in which there are prestigious restaurants.

To not miss...

This park is set up on former plasterstone carrier of which production was sold until America.

Go to the Cave-waterfall recently restored and open to the public.

In the middle there is a lake and an island linked to the bank by a footbridge. Climb to the Temple of Love which is on the top. All the future brides of the area are photographed here.

Here there were initially, 3 small islands. On one of them, the Templars were burned out in 1314 (remember the Damned Kings of Maurice Druon).

It is a romantic garden, very busy in Summer but more quiet in Winter.

Do not miss the sun set on Paris here.

Metro : Pont Neuf

A garden of 4 hectars in the center of Paris with shadowed paths.

Previously, there was here the wholesale food market in which all the retailers merchants went to their supply.

The Saint Eustache church West and the Forum des Halles (a mall) East, this garden proposes a mix of nature, history and shopping.

Metro : Chatelet les Halles (take the "Forum des Halles" or "Rambuteau" exits)

La Défense has the world largest hanging gardens.

This one is in front of the Tour FIAT.

Métro : RER La Défense Grande Arche.

At the feet of the Tour Eiffel.

You get rid of the file to go to the top of the Tour Eiffel. Leave the queue and enjoy the charm of the garden.

In front of the Tour Eiffel, on the Right Bank, the garden of Trocadero.

Initially, Louis 13th set up this garden for the training of the chemists and doctors.

A part of the garden has a free access. The Museum of national History, the zoo, the great greenhouse and some gardens need to buy an entrance ticket.

It is a very pleasant walk in Spring and in Summer. Do not miss the roses.

At the corner of rue Cuvier and rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire (metro : Gare d'Austerlitz). Near the Institut du Monde Arabe.
Schedule : 7:30AM - 5:45PM (7:45PM in Summer)

An Art exibit, in the Jardin des Plantes.

On the right of the main building (Grande Galerie de l'Evolution), a labyrint runs along a mound to this curious metal construction.

To have a high view on a part of the garden.

Now a quick jump in the suburbs : in St Cloud.
This huge park is located along the Seine between the pont de St Cloud and the Pont de Sevres.
Initially, it was the park of the Castle of St Cloud which was owned by the royal family. Lenotre, the master of the Vesrailles park, had managed the park.
The castle was arsoned in 1870 during the Prussian war and was never rebuilt.
It was 460 hectars (you read well).
You can freely go there by tramway (station : Val d'Or), by bus, by train.
You can also enter with your car (3.50 euros).
The picture was shot on Winter. The lanscape is nicer on Spring and Summer and the fountains work.

At the extremity of the Canal Saint Martin, near the River Seine, the Arsenal Garden.

It is the yacht harbor of Paris.

Metro : Bastille

If you get rid of the crowd on the Bastille place or if you are tired by the traffic of the district, do few steps to access to the Arsenal Garden.

You will enjoy a quiet stay in the middle of flowers or at the terrass of the coffee shop of the garden.

The hostel rue Trousseau is nearby.

Located in the West of Paris.

There is a large park, with a wineyard,a rose garden and a pond set up in the former whole trade wine market of Paris.

In the close neighbor : the palais de la Porte de Bercy (an adaptable hall for both sport and spectacles), the rue des Pirogues de Bercy, a street completly devoted to shops, cafes and restaurants installed in the former wine market (an exceptional example of successful renovation).

Metro : Bercy or Cours Saint Emilion (Line 14)

At 50 mn from Paris (RER line C or train from Gare Saint Lazare), the gardens of Versailles Palace.

Go there on Sunday when the fountains work.

The entry is free.

830 hectars, such as Central Park multiplicated by 2.5.

It is located on the West of Paris and it is a part of the city of Paris.

It is a huge park set up by Haussmann in the middle of the 1800' by order of Napoleon 3rd who remembered the nice parks he frequented during his exile in UK.

Metro : Porte Maillot + bus
or Porte de la Muette

Near the Racecourse of Longchamp : a wind mill in a charming private garden. At 5 mn walk of the camping of Bois de Boulogne (THE Paris camping) located on the Seine bank.

Very large and crowdy in Summer, it is a cheap accomodation if you want to visit the France capital. I recommend to arrive on the morning, between 10 to 12 in order to find a place for your tend. The camping provides also caravan renting.

If you choose to do a walk in the Bois de Boulogne by hot weather do not forget water to drink because there is no itinerant vendors. If you are rich you can have a glass at "the Chalet du Lac".

But consequently, the Bois de boulogne is clean.

Some areas of the "Bois" are frequented by night by prostitutes and the police forbides the car traffic between 9PM to 5AM.

A recent garden set up on the left bank of Seine, near the metro Balard, on the former place of the Citroën manufactures.

There are a fountain with many nozzles (wonderful for kids though forbiden), a large lawn on which you may walk and sit, a greenhouse (without any interest but free), a garden with trees and the .... Fortis balloon (a real tourist trap : see the travelogue "Paris viewpoints").

I recommend it to spend a pleasant afternoon out of the touristy areas.

The Garden and the Palace were built in 1613. The Palace is now used by the Senat.

The garden is the Rendez vous of all classes of Parisians : the students, the mothers with children, the workers searching a bit of rest, the retired persons.

In the middle of the parc there is an ornemental pond surrounded by statues. The pond is used by model boats amateurs.

A Sunday morning, I saw two of these models lovers : a youngster with motor boat and an old beared man maneuvering a wooden model of sailing boat with a baston. The gap of generation exists in the choice of the toys too.

For the kids, there is also an indoor puppet show the Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

Close to the Senat, in the Jardin du Luxembourg, there is a shadowed fountain which inspires the painters. It was named as the first occupier of the parc : the Queen Catherine de Medicis.

In Summer, the fountain is surrounded by flowers.

Bring your future girl friend here, you are sure to win...

Choose a chair. You have the choice.

Behind is the Senat Building.

Statues in front of the Senat

Statue on the lawn

Less known than its prestigious neighbour (Jardin du Luxembourg), this garden is a long walk with a pleasant view : South, the Observatory - North, the Senat.

Along the walk, there are several statues.

Located Boulevard de Courcelles (Métro : Monceau), this garden is completly unknown by the tourists though it is very beautyful. The reason : it is the only attraction of the area. But it worths a short trip by the subway.

It is a landscape of pond, trees (some have 2 centuries), ruins (false as on the photograph or true like a Renaissance arch which previouly was a part the City Hall arsoned during the Commune of 1871), caves (completly false). the garden is surrounded by gorgeous buildings erected during the 2nd Empire.

Here Cagliostro invited the gosts of Mary Stuart, Diana of Poitiers and Ninon de Lenclos for the Duke of Orleans.

The first parachute experiment occured here in 1797. A man, named Garnerin, jumped from a balloon at 1000 meters and fell with his parachute in the Parc Monceau.

In Paris, everything can have its own garden.

Look at this lawn which is on a barge along the Quai de Montebello (5e rrondissemnt).

It is not among the 400 public gardens of Paris...