Buttes-Chaumont

He undressed and in his blue swim suit stepped under the flush of the cascade to cool down; the water comes from the Villette basin, it's cool, cold, cold.

The third largest of over 400 parisian parks and garden, the Buttes-Chaumont is a depaysement. From an ancient quarry surrounded by poverty stricken squalid housing in the XIX century, baron Haussman designed a park at Buttes Chaumont during Napoleon III.

His idea was most original and remains today one of the most stunning landmarks of Paris. It's a surrealist experience in today's world of hastily built HLM high rises ringing the park, the pleasure garden devised remains intact.

The depaysement is total, you feel like stepping into another world in Alice's Wonderland experience. The cascade is a replica, a surrogate of oxygen, and when the water gushes into the grotto, as you enter it, you feel like one of those first Gaellic people in awe, ready to set up a fire and roast a boar with Obelix and Asterix. Seated on the side of the lake that surrounds the left over of the quarry, you can enjoy the shade playing poker...

For more information, visit the site of the Ville de Paris |center>