Parc Montsouris, English garden in 14th arrondissement, France
Parc Montsouris is a 15-hectare English landscape garden in the 14th arrondissement, laid out from 1867 by Adolphe Alphand with architect Gabriel Davioud and horticulturist Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps. Its one-hectare artificial lake is fed by a stream that crosses a rock-and-cement cascade, and winding paths climb the slopes past sloping lawns and flowerbeds. The park sits on the highest point of the Left Bank, at 78 metres.
The park was established in 1867 under Napoleon III as part of a plan to create four major green spaces across Paris. This project transformed a former quarry site into landscaped gardens, modernizing the city's outdoor spaces.
The park's name comes from the Moulin de Moque-Souris, a windmill that stood near today's rue d'Alésia; "moque-souris" (mocks-the-mice) teased millers whose mills held no grain, and the name shifted to Montsouris. A guignol puppet theatre and a bandstand built for the 1881 International Electricity Exhibition, moved here in 1884, still host performances.
The park opens daily at 7:00 AM with closing times that shift seasonally, closing earlier in winter and later during summer months. Checking the specific hours before your visit helps you plan enough time to explore the pathways and grounds comfortably.
A meridian marker in the grounds indicates the former Paris meridian, which served as the longitude reference for French maps until 1884. This small historical detail traces back to when Paris had its own geographic reference system separate from the rest of the world.
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