Paris has a huge variety of public green space, ranging from formal historic gardens to haphazard community veg plots and from urban squares to semi-wild woodland.  After three years exploring the city I’m still finding green surprises in places I’ve not visited before, discovering hidden gardens I’d overlooked close to home and revisiting quiet corners of well known landmarks.

 

Playing in Place des Vosges, October 2015
Welcome shade in the gardens of the Palais Royal
Narcissus in the Parc Floral
Autumn colour in Parc de Belleville, October 2015
Over the hill from Parc de Belleville – Paris, October 2015
Late summer colour in the Jardin du Luxembourg – September 2016

 

For over two years I counted Place de Vosges among my local green spaces and visited it in every season.  A short uphill bike ride brought me to Parc de Belleville (with magnificent views across Paris) while twenty minutes on the metro offered the delights of the Parc Floral.    Now we’ve moved across the river and our neighbourhood park is the Jardin du Luxembourg.  I still can’t quite get used to that idea.

Click on any of the photos above to view the gallery or on the highlighted links for a post on the named park.  From there you can follow the Paris Parks tags to discover more parks and gardens around the city.

 

Red valerian in Père Lachaise cemetery
Echium and daisies on the Petite Ceinture
A strip of wild vegetation between the surfaced footpath and the remaining rails – Petite Ceinture
City wetland in Parc Martin Luther King
A sunken forest at the Bibliotheque François Mitterand is accessible only to wildlife (and the occasional essential maintenance worker) – Paris, July 2016
Male Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus), hiding the blue upper surface of his wings
Heron in Parc de Bercy

 

There’s room for wildlife in the city too.  In Père Lachaise cemetery self sown red valerian hums with bees and flutters with butterflies.  Along the disused railway track of the Petite Ceinture wildflowers seed in the track ballast and robins sing in the wild hedgerows.  There’s wetland for frogs and herons in Parc de Bercy and Parc Martin Luther King.  And amidst the monumental modernist architecture of Bibliotheque François Mitterrand there’s a hidden forest in miniature, off limits to human visitors.

Click on any of the links above to go the related post and follow the Wildflower and Urban Wildlife tags to discover more city green spaces.