Suresnes ( French pronunciation: [syʁɛn] ) is a commune in the western inner suburbs of Paris , France. Located in Hauts-de-Seine , 9.3 km (5.8 mi) from the centre of Paris, it had a population of 49,482 as of 2020.
70-582: Suresnes borders the Bois de Boulogne in the 16th arrondissement of Paris , across the Seine . Its neighbouring communes are Nanterre , Puteaux , Rueil-Malmaison and Saint-Cloud . Suresnes's landmarks include the Mémorial de la France combattante , where an annual ceremony is held on 18 June, as well as Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial nearby, below Fort Mont-Valérien , in addition to Foch Hospital in
140-600: A battleground. In 1416–17, the soldiers of John the Fearless , the Duke of Burgundy, burned part of the forest in their successful campaign to capture Paris. Under Louis XI , the trees were replanted, and two roads were opened through the forest. In 1526, King Francis I of France began a royal residence, the Château de Madrid , in the forest in what is now Neuilly and used it for hunting and festivities. It took its name from
210-776: A canal drawn from Ourq River and from artesian wells in Passy . The water arrives in the Lac Superieur (Upper Lake), built in 1852 and located near the Hippodrome de Auteil, then flows by gravity to the Grand Cascade and then to the Lac Inferieur , or Lower Lake . Within the Bois de Boulogne, there are several separate botanical and floral gardens, and gardens of amusement. There is a seven-hectare campground in
280-411: A day. This well went into service in 1861. The water then had to be distributed around the park to water the lawns and gardens; the traditional system of horse-drawn wagons with large barrels of water would not be enough. A system of 66 kilometers of pipes was laid, with a faucet every 30 or 40 meters, a total of 1600 faucets. Alphand also had to build a network of roads, paths, and trails to connect
350-461: A new water distribution system and sewers; and creating green spaces and recreation for Paris' rapidly growing population. In 1852, Napoleon donated the land for the Bois de Boulogne and for the Bois de Vincennes, which both belonged officially to him. Additional land in the plain of Longchamp, the site of the Château de Madrid, the Château de Bagatelle, and its gardens were purchased and attached to
420-590: A popular rendezvous place for prostitutes, usually working in vans parked by the side of the road. The practice persists despite some French government efforts to eliminate this business from the park. Bois de Boulogne is home to many red squirrels . They are protected by law in France, and dogs are required to be kept on leads in the park to ensure the safety of the squirrels. The Bois de Boulogne contains two artificial lakes and eight artificial ponds, connected by three artificial streams. They receive their water from
490-523: A similar palace in Madrid, where Francis had been held prisoner for several months. The Château was rarely used by later monarchs, fell into ruins in the 18th century, and was demolished after the French Revolution . Despite its royal status, the forest remained dangerous for travellers; the scientist and traveller Pierre Belon was murdered by thieves in the Bois de Boulogne in 1564. During
560-641: A total 1,835 hectares of green space in Paris, more than any other ruler of France before or since. By 1867 the Baedeker Guide described it as "once a forest abounding with game, the resort of duellists and suicides and the haunt of bandits ... now a delightful park". During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), which led to the downfall of Napoleon III and the long siege of Paris, the park suffered some damage from German artillery bombardment,
630-401: Is 16.305 km ( 6.295 sq mi or 4,029 acres), slightly more than half of which consists of the Bois de Boulogne park. Excluding the Bois de Boulogne, its land area is 7.846 km ( 3.029 sq mi or 1,939 acres). It is the largest arrondissement in Paris in terms of land area. The population of the 16th arrondissement peaked in 1962, when it had 227,418 inhabitants. At
700-514: Is a large public park that is the western half of the 16th arrondissement of Paris , near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine . The land was ceded to the city of Paris by the Emperor Napoleon III to be turned into a public park in 1852. It is the second-largest park in Paris, slightly smaller than the Bois de Vincennes on the eastern side of the city. It covers an area of 845 hectares (2088 acres), which
770-464: Is a remnant of the ancient oak forest of Rouvray , which included the present-day forests of Montmorency, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Chaville, and Meudon. Dagobert I hunted bears, deer, and other game in the forest. His grandson, Childeric II , gave the forest to the monks of the Abbey of Saint-Denis , who founded several monastic communities there. Philip Augustus (1180–1223) bought back the main part of
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#1732766050009840-632: Is about two and a half times the area of Central Park in New York , slightly larger than Phoenix Park in Dublin , and slightly smaller than Richmond Park in London . Within the boundaries of the Bois de Boulogne are an English landscape garden with several lakes and a cascade; two smaller botanical and landscape gardens, the Château de Bagatelle and the Pré-Catelan; a zoo and amusement park in
910-486: Is extremely rare in Paris. It is also the only arrondissement in Paris to be divided into two separate postal codes . The southern part of the arrondissement carries a postal code of 75016, while the northern part has the code of 75116. Politics The 16th arrondissement is one of the strongest areas in the country for the French political right . At the 2017 French presidential election , it gave over 58% of its votes in
980-468: Is the westernmost of the 20 arrondissements of Paris , the capital city of France . Located on its Right Bank , it is adjacent to the 17th and 8th arrondissements to the northeast, as well as to the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt , Hauts-de-Seine to the southwest. Opposite the Seine are the 7th and 15th arrondissements. Notable sights of the 16th arrondissement include the Arc de Triomphe (at
1050-509: The Comte d'Artois , Louis XVI 's brother, built a charming miniature palace, the Château de Bagatelle , in the Bois in just 64 days, on a wager from his sister-in-law, Marie Antoinette . Louis XVI also opened the walled park to the public for the first time. On 21 November 1783, Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes took off from the Château de la Muette in a hot air balloon made by
1120-570: The Eiffel Tower , as does neighbouring Saint-Cloud . Robert Ormond Maugham, the father of W. Somerset Maugham , built a "country house" in Suresnes around 1883. The house, which still exists at 5 Rue Worth, was described by R.O. Maugham's grandson, Robin Maugham , as being, "very odd indeed – half Swiss chalet and half Japanese, with a projecting roof, stucco walls, and wooden supports for
1190-692: The French Second Republic , the Bois was largely empty, an assortment of bleak ruined meadows and tree stumps where the British and Russians had camped and dismal stagnant ponds. The Bois de Boulogne was the idea of Napoleon III , shortly after he staged a coup d'état and elevated himself from the President of the French Republic to Emperor of the French in 1852. When Napoleon III became Emperor, Paris had only four public parks -
1260-553: The Institut national supérieur de formation et de recherche pour l'éducation des jeunes handicapés et les enseignements adaptés (INS HEA), a public college in the fields of disability. A campus of Skema Business School is located in the city. Suresnes is twinned with: Bois de Boulogne 48°52′N 2°15′E / 48.86°N 2.25°E / 48.86; 2.25 The Bois de Boulogne ( French pronunciation: [bwɑ d(ə) bulɔɲ] , "Boulogne woodland")
1330-567: The Jardin d'Acclimatation , a separate concession of 20 hectares at the north end of the park; it included a zoo and a botanical garden, as well as an amusement park. Between 1877 and 1912, it also served as the home of what was called an ethnological garden, a place where groups of the inhabitants of faraway countries were put on display for weeks at a time in reconstructed villages from their homelands. They were mostly Sub-Saharan Africans, North Africans, or South American Indians, and came mostly from
1400-825: The Jardin d'Acclimatation ; GoodPlanet Foundation 's Domaine de Longchamp dedicated to ecology and humanism, The Jardin des Serres d'Auteuil , a complex of greenhouses holding a hundred thousand plants; two tracks for horse racing , the Hippodrome de Longchamp and the Auteuil Hippodrome ; the Stade Roland Garros where the French Open tennis tournament is held each year, the Louis Vuitton Foundation art museum and cultural center, and other attractions. The Bois de Boulogne
1470-543: The Montgolfier brothers . Previous flights had carried animals or had been tethered to the ground; this was the first manned free flight in history. The balloon rose to a height of 910 meters (3000 feet), was in the air for 25 minutes, and covered nine kilometers. Following the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814, 40,000 soldiers of the British and Russian armies camped in the forest. Thousands of trees were cut down to build shelters and for firewood. From 1815 until
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#17327660500091540-676: The Tuileries Gardens , the Luxembourg Garden , the Palais-Royal , and the Jardin des Plantes - all in the center of the city. There were no public parks in the rapidly growing east and west of the city. During his exile in London, he had been particularly impressed by Hyde Park , by its lakes and streams and its popularity with Londoners of all social classes. Therefore, he decided to build two large public parks on
1610-730: The Villa Windsor , a house in the Bois de Boulogne behind the garden of the Bagatelle. The house was (and still is) owned by the City of Paris and was leased to the couple. The Duke died in this house in 1972, and the Duchess died there in 1986. The lease was purchased by Mohamed al-Fayed , the owner of the Ritz Hotel in Paris. The house was visited briefly by Diana, Princess of Wales and her companion, Dodi Fayed , on 31 August 1997,
1680-505: The croquet and tug of war events. During the 1924 Summer Olympics , the equestrian events took place in the Auteuil Hippodrome . The Bois de Boulogne hosted all rowing teams participating in the Inter-Allied Games , held in Paris in 1919 following the end of World War One. The Bois de Boulogne was officially annexed by the city of Paris in 1929 and incorporated into the 16th arrondissement. Soon after World War II ,
1750-443: The 16th arrondissement has long been known as one of French high society's favourite places of residence (comparable to London's Kensington and Chelsea or Berlin's Charlottenburg ) to such an extent that the phrase le 16 has been associated with great wealth in French popular culture. Indeed, the 16th arrondissement of Paris is France's third-richest district for average household income, behind only its 7th arrondissement and
1820-493: The 16th arrondissement is the place diana, the pont de l'alma tunnel is known for being the location of the fatal car accident that killed Diana, princess of Wales. The Paris Dauphine University is in the arrondissement, as well as Paris Institute of Technology , part of Paris Descartes University , one of Paris biggest public universities. The renowned " classes préparatoires " establishment Intégrale : Institut d'enseignement supérieur privé have one of their campuses in
1890-491: The 1965 James Bond film Thunderball , character Emilio Largo is seen arriving at the headquarters of The International Brotherhood for the Assistance of Stateless Persons . This scene was shot on Avenue d'Eylau in the 16th arrondissement. The 1972 film Last Tango in Paris was filmed at various locations in the 16th arrondissement, with the apartment the characters stayed in being located in Passy . A scene of
1960-593: The 2018 action film Mission: Impossible – Fallout was filmed under the elevated Métro station Passy in the arrondissement. Other scenes of the film included ones shot at the Grand Palais (8th arrondissement) and under the Cité de la mode et du design on the Seine (13th arrondissement). Here is a list of domestic French sixth-form colleges/high schools in the arrondissement International schools: situated near to
2030-424: The Bois de Boulogne, Camping Indigo Paris, with five hundred and ten sites ("pitches") for travellers with tents, caravans and camping cars. Reservations can be made in advance, online. Mobile home rentals are also available by reservation. Notes 16th arrondissement of Paris The 16th arrondissement of Paris ( le XVI arrondissement ; French pronunciation: [lə sɛzjɛm aʁɔ̃dismɑ̃] )
2100-457: The Bois, "to give life to this arid promenade". The first plan for the Bois de Boulogne was drawn up by the architect Jacques Hittorff , who, under King Louis Philippe , had designed the Place de la Concorde , and the landscape architect Louis-Sulpice Varé, who had designed French landscape gardens at several famous châteaux. Their plan called for long straight alleys in patterns crisscrossing
2170-544: The French coast, to see a statue of the Virgin Mary which was reputed to inspire miracles. He decided to build a church with a copy of the statue in a village in the forest not far from Paris, in order to attract pilgrims. The chapel was built after Philip's death between 1319 and 1330, in what is now Boulogne-Billancourt . During the Hundred Years' War , the forest became a sanctuary for robbers and sometimes
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2240-650: The French colonies in Africa and South America, but also included natives of Lapland and Cossacks from Russia. These exhibitions were extremely popular and took place not only in Paris, but also in Germany, England, and at the Chicago Exposition in the United States; but they were also criticized at the time and later as being a kind of " human zoo ". Twenty-two of these exhibits were held in the park in
2310-458: The cascade and an artificial grotto. The pumps from the Seine could not provide enough water to fill the lakes and irrigate the park, so a new channel was created to bring the water of the Ourcq River, from Monceau to the upper lake in the Bois, but this was not enough. An artesian well 586 meters deep was eventually dug in the plain of Passy which could produce 20,000 cubic meters of water
2380-551: The convent of the Abbey of Longchamp, located where the hippodrome now stands. A famous opera singer of the period, Madmoiselle Le Maure, retired there in 1727 but continued to give recitals inside the Abbey, even during Holy Week . These concerts drew large crowds and irritated the Archbishop of Paris, who closed the Abbey to the public. Louis XVI and his family used the forest as a hunting ground and pleasure garden. In 1777,
2450-548: The day that they died in a traffic accident in the Alma tunnel. On weekends, the Bois de Boulogne is full of activities such as biking, jogging, boat rowing, horseback and pony rides, and remote control speed boats. Picnics are permitted in most parts of the park, but barbecues are not allowed. The Bois de Boulogne hosts several races, like the 10 km (6.2 mi) of Boulogne and the Boulogne half marathon. Since its creation,
2520-422: The eastern and western edges of the city where both the rich and ordinary people could enjoy themselves. These parks became an important part of the plan for the reconstruction of Paris drawn up by Napoleon III and his new Prefect of the Seine, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann . The Haussmann plan called for improving the city's traffic circulation by building new boulevards; improving the city's health by building
2590-670: The exiles to the young people in Spain who had not fought in the Spanish Civil War . Suresnes is served by Suresnes–Mont-Valérien station on the Transilien La Défense and Transilien Paris – Saint-Lazare suburban rail lines. It is also served by Île-de-France tramway Line 2 , which stops twice in the commune, at Belvédère and Suresnes Longchamp . The Pont de Suresnes carries the Allée de Longchamp, one of
2660-523: The experience and aesthetics they had developed in the Bois de Boulogne. They also rebuilt the Luxembourg gardens and the gardens of the Champs- Elysees, created smaller squares and parks throughout the center of Paris, and planted thousands of trees along the new boulevards that Haussmann had created. In the 17 years of Napoleon III's reign, they planted no less than 600,000 trees and created
2730-407: The first round to right-wing candidate François Fillon , compared to his national result of 20%. It then went on to vote for Emmanuel Macron by a landslide in the runoff . An immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth. An immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics. On
2800-415: The forest from the monks to create a royal hunting reserve. In 1256, Isabelle de France , sister of Saint-Louis , founded the Abbey of Longchamp at the site of the present hippodrome. The Bois received its present name from a chapel, Notre Dame de Boulogne la Petite, which was built in the forest at the command of Philip IV of France (1268–1314). In 1308, Philip made a pilgrimage to Boulogne-sur-Mer, on
2870-405: The forest more natural, they brought 50 deer to live in and around the Pré-Catelan. The park was designed to be more than a collection of picturesque landscapes; it was meant as a place for amusement and recreation, with sports fields, bandstands, cafes, shooting galleries, riding stables, boating on the lakes, and other attractions. In 1855, Gabriel Davioud , a graduate of Ecole des Beaux-Arts ,
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2940-612: The head of a new Service of Promenades and Plantations, in charge of all the parks in Paris. Alphand was charged to make a new plan for the Bois de Boulogne. Alphand's plan was radically different from the Hittorff-Varé plan. While it still had two long straight boulevards, the Allée Reine Marguerite and the Avenue Longchamp, all the other paths and alleys curved and meandered. The flat Bois de Boulogne
3010-513: The junction with the 8th and 17th arrondissements) and the Place du Trocadéro , where the Palais de Chaillot stands, itself concentrating three museums and one theatre. Other museums and cultural venues are located in this arrondissement, including the Louis Vuitton Foundation opened in 2014. With its ornate 19th-century buildings, large avenues, prestigious schools, museums, and various parks,
3080-463: The lake and became a restaurant. He built another restaurant next to the park's most picturesque feature, the Grand Cascade. He designed artificial grottoes made of rocks and concrete, and bridges and balustrades made of concrete painted to look like wood. He also designed all the architectural details of the park, from cone-shaped shelters designed to protect horseback riders from the rain to
3150-529: The last census (2009), the population was 169,372. The 16th arrondissement contains a great deal of business activity; in 1999 it hosted 106,971 jobs. The 16th arrondissement is commonly thought to be one of the richest parts of Paris (as the saying Auteuil-Neuilly-Passy popularised); it features some of the most expensive real estate in France including the famous Auteuil "villas"; heirs to 19th century high-society country houses, they are exclusive gated communities with huge houses surrounded by gardens, which
3220-418: The last part of the Paris marathon ends by crossing the Bois de Boulogne from 35 km (22 mi). Boulogne Wood is an important place of running in Paris. The Bois holds a three-day weekend party in the month of July, with over 50 bands and singers, attended mostly by students who camp out overnight. Though soliciting for prostitution is illegal in France, at night-time parts of the Bois de Boulogne are
3290-403: The last quarter of the 19th century. About ten more were held in the 20th century, with the last one taking place in 1931. In 1905, a grand new restaurant in the classical style was built in the Pré-Catelan by architect Guillaume Tronchet . Like the cafe at the Grand Cascade, it became a popular promenade destination for the French upper classes. At the 1900 Summer Olympics , the land hosted
3360-411: The law of 1859 was drafted, it was planned that these villages would form a new arrondissement that would be numbered the 13th arrondissement, but "The rich and powerful moving in did not like the number. They pulled strings and became the 16th, the unlucky association and postmark being transferred to the blameless but less influential folks around Porte d'Italie ." The land area of this arrondissement
3430-595: The little balconies." In 1974 the Spanish Socialist Workers Party held its 26th Congress in Suresnes (it was illegal in Spain under Franco ). Felipe González was elected Secretary General, replacing Rodolfo Llopis Ferrándiz . González was from the "reform" wing of the party, and his victory signaled a defeat for the historic and veteran wing of the Party. The direction of the party shifted from
3500-617: The main traffic arteries, from the Bois de Boulogne over the Seine into the western suburbs of Paris. Suresnes has the Musée d'histoire urbaine et sociale de Suresnes dedicated to social urban . In 2027 the Terrorism Memorial Museum will open. The following people have been associated with Suresnes: Technician degrees are available at the Lycée Paul-Langevin . Suresnes also hosts the headquarters of
3570-408: The other hand, persons born in France with foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants. Notable companies that have their head offices in the arrondissement include Lacoste , PSA Peugeot Citroën and Lagardère . At one time Aérospatiale , Technip , Veolia and Lafarge also had their head offices in the arrondissement. In one of the opening scenes of
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#17327660500093640-593: The park began to come back to life. In 1945, it held its first motor race after the war: the Paris Cup. In 1953, a British group, Les Amis de la France, created the Shakespeare Garden on the site of the old floral theater in the Pré-Catelan. From 1952 until 1986, the Duke of Windsor , the title granted to King Edward VIII after his abdication, and his wife, Wallis Simpson , the Duchess of Windsor, lived in
3710-583: The park benches and direction signs. At the south end of the park, in the Plain of Longchamp, Davioud restored the ruined windmill which was the surviving vestige of the Abbey of Longchamp, and, working with the Jockey Club of Paris, constructed the grandstands of the Hippodrome of Longchamp, which opened in 1857. At the northern end of the park, between the Sablons gate and Neuilly, a 20-hectare section of
3780-473: The park was given to the Societé Imperiale zoologique d'Acclimatation, to create a small zoo and botanical garden, with an aviary of rare birds and exotic plants and animals from around the world. In March 1855, an area in the center of the park, called the Pré-Catelan, was leased to a concessionaire for a garden and amusement park. It was built on the site of a quarry where the gravel and sand for
3850-588: The park was the task of the new chief gardener and landscape architect of the Service of Promenades and Plantations, Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps , who had also worked with Haussmann and Alphand in Bordeaux. His gardeners planted 420,000 trees, including hornbeam , beech , linden , cedar , chestnut , and elm , and hardy exotic species, like redwoods . They planted 270 hectares of lawns, with 150 kilograms of seed per hectare, and thousands of flowers. To make
3920-496: The park's roads and paths had been dug out. It included a large circular lawn surrounded by trees, grottos, rocks, paths, and flower beds. Davioud designed a buffet, a marionette theater, a photography pavilion, stables, a dairy, and other structures. The most original feature was the Théâtre des fleurs, an open-air theater in a setting of trees and flowers. Later, an ice skating rink and shooting gallery were added. The Pré-Catelan
3990-587: The park, and, as the Emperor had asked, lakes and a long stream similar to the Serpentine in Hyde Park. Varé bungled the assignment. He failed to take into account the difference in elevation between the beginning of the stream and the end; if his plan had been followed, the upper part of the stream would have been empty, and the lower portion flooded. When Haussmann saw the partially finished stream, he saw
4060-527: The problem immediately and had the elevations measured. He dismissed the unfortunate Varé and Hittorff, and designed the solution himself; an upper lake and a lower lake, divided by an elevated road, which serves as a dam, and a cascade which allows the water to flow between the lakes. This is the design still seen today. In 1853, Haussmann hired an experienced engineer from the corps of Bridges and Highways, Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand , whom he had worked with in his previous assignment in Bordeaux, and made him
4130-441: The proposed park, so it could extend all the way to the Seine. Construction was funded out of the state budget, supplemented by selling building lots along the north end of the Bois, in Neuilly . Napoleon III was personally involved in planning the new parks. He insisted that the Bois de Boulogne should have a stream and lakes, like Hyde Park in London. "We must have a stream here, as in Hyde Park," he observed while driving through
4200-402: The reigns of Henry II and Henry III , the forest was enclosed within a wall with eight gates. Henry IV planted 15,000 mulberry trees, with the hope of beginning a local silk industry. When Henry annulled his marriage to Marguerite de Valois , she went to live in the Château de la Muette , on the edge of the forest. In the early 18th century, wealthy and important women often retired to
4270-486: The restaurant of the Grand Cascade was turned into a field hospital, and many of the park's animals and wild fowl were eaten by the hungry population. In the years following, however, the park quickly recovered. The Bois de Boulogne became a popular meeting place and promenade route for Parisians of all classes. The alleys were filled with carriages, coaches, and horseback riders, and later with men and women on bicycles, and then with automobiles. Families having picnics filled
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#17327660500094340-551: The second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Scenes set in the park appeared in Nana by Émile Zola and in L'Éducation sentimentale by Gustave Flaubert . In the last pages of Du côté de chez Swann in À la recherche du temps perdu (1914), Marcel Proust minutely described a walk around the lakes taken as a child. The life in the park was also the subject of the paintings of many artists, including Édouard Manet , Pierre-Auguste Renoir , and Vincent van Gogh , and Mary Cassatt . In 1860, Napoleon opened
4410-410: The second-largest public park in Paris (behind only the Bois de Vincennes ), is also located in this arrondissement. The 16th arrondissement was created by the Law of 16 June 1859 which incorporated the villages (now neighborhoods) of Auteuil , Passy and Chaillot into Paris; these villages had become communes after the French Revolution and had been in the Seine department ever since. When
4480-418: The sights of the park. The two long straight alleys from the old park were retained, and his workers built an additional 58 kilometers of roads paved with stones for carriages, 12 kilometers of sandy paths for horses, and 25 kilometers of dirt trails for walkers. As a result of Louis Napoléon's exile in London and his memories of Hyde Park, all the new roads and paths were curved and meandering. The planting of
4550-442: The suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine , both of which are adjacent. The 16th arrondissement hosts several large sporting venues, including: the Parc des Princes , which is the stadium where Paris Saint-Germain football club plays its home matches; Roland Garros Stadium , where the French Open tennis championships are held; and Stade Jean-Bouin , home to the Stade Français rugby union club. The Bois de Boulogne ,
4620-473: The town centre. The commune is served by Suresnes–Mont-Valérien station on the Transilien network and by two stops on Île-de-France tramway Line 2 , all three giving access to the La Défense business district and its RER A , RER E and Paris Métro Line 1 services. Fort Mont-Valérien (along with its Mémorial de la France combattante ) is situated in the commune, as is Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial . Suresnes has an elegant view of Paris and
4690-456: The woods and lawns, and Parisians rowed boats on the lake, while the upper classes were entertained in the cafes. The restaurant of the Pavillon de la Grand Cascade became a popular spot for Parisian weddings. During the winter, when the lakes were frozen, they were crowded with ice skaters. The activities of Parisians in the Bois, particularly the long promenades in carriages around the lakes, were often portrayed in French literature and art in
4760-411: Was named the chief architect of the new Service of Promenades and Plantations. He was commissioned to design 24 pavilions and chalets, plus cafes, gatehouses, boating docks, and kiosks. He designed the gatehouses where the guardians of the park lived to look like rustic cottages. He had a real Swiss chalet built out of wood in Switzerland and transported to Paris, where it was reassembled on an island in
4830-418: Was popular for concerts and dances, but it had continual financial difficulties and eventually went bankrupt. The floral theater remained in business until the beginning of the First World War , in 1914. The garden-building team assembled by Haussmann of Alphand, Barrillet-Deschamps and Davioud went on to build The Bois de Vincennes , Parc Monceau Parc Montsouris , and the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont , using
4900-506: Was to be turned into an undulating landscape of lakes, hills, islands, groves, lawns, and grassy slopes, not a reproduction of but an idealization of nature. It became the prototype for the other city parks of Paris and then for city parks around the world. The building of the park was an enormous engineering project which lasted for five years. The upper and lower lakes were dug, and the earth piled into islands and hills. Rocks were brought from Fontainbleau and combined with concrete to make
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