Colline aux Oiseaux, Green space in Caen, France.
The Colline aux Oiseaux is a park in Caen covering 17 hectares of landscaped gardens with varied plant collections arranged in themed sections throughout the grounds. The layout allows visitors to experience panoramic views of the city from multiple vantage points.
In 1923 the city bought land south of the hamlet of La Folie for a rubbish dump; over fifty years two hills 35 and 25 metres high formed there. After the Colombelles incinerator opened in January 1973, deputy mayor Franck Duncombe, appointed in 1971, had the disused dump turned into a public garden. It was inaugurated in 1994 for the 50th anniversary of the Normandy landings.
The park's themed gardens are named after Caen's twin towns: Franconia, Devon, Thiès and Alexandria each have a plot, and a garden of France gathers plots for regional cities such as Deauville and Hérouville-Saint-Clair. A miniature Normandy reproduces the region's main sites, and an enclosure keeps goats alongside a collection of regional domestic breeds.
The park is open daily with morning access and varying closing times depending on the season. Well-maintained pathways throughout the grounds serve visitors of different mobility levels.
The two hills, 35 and 25 metres high, are not natural: they grew out of fifty years of the city's household waste, dumped here from 1923 until the Colombelles incinerator opened in January 1973. The park was inaugurated in 1994 for the 50th anniversary of the Normandy landings.
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