Let me just start by saying what a magical place this park is, it has so many weird and wonderful nooks to explore and a brilliant history to go with it. The land this park is built upon has a sordid past going from battle field, to gallows, back to battle field, to gypsum quarry, to family picnic area. A dark park indeed.
The Parc des Buttes Chaumont can be found in the north east of Paris in the 19th/e, so not in one of the overly touristy areas, however you will find enough here to satiate all your viewing needs to justify a trip out to the 19th. Surprisingly it is only the third largest public park in Paris. I say surprisingly as it was massive, roughly 61 acres with over 5 kms of walkways and paths and I think we only walked half of those paths. So needless to say we will have to go back another day to see what other gifts it can throw up. The park's most iconic feature is the famous Belvedere of Sybil (pictured above). Built in 1869 and modelled after the ancient Roman Temple of Vesta, boasting Corinthian style columns and a stunning view of Paris. Click the "read more" link to see the photos from the day...
The suspension bridge (weeeee!!!) was designed by Gustave Eiffel in 1867 (same guy who engineered Eiffel Tower no less) and is just under 64 metres long and about 8 metres above ground.
Walking up to the Belvedere of Sybil .
The Belvedere of Sybil. This stunning structure had an equally stunning view and was well worth the walk to get there. It sits a top a man made bluff, 30m above ground.
Clearly a spot for young lovers and for good reason. It really is beautiful here and unlike a lot of other sights in Paris there are no crowds, lines or fees. A great place for a picnic with a glass of wine.
Did we mention there is a waterfall and lake running through the park? This is part of the amazing waterfall at the park, which falls into a cave.
Exactly 2 months until Christmas! Holly just reminds me of Christmas is all.
A view of the man made cliff face. They really did go to an almighty effort to turn this place into something spectacular.
Navigating our way through this vast landscape.
A creepy looking Pan statue donated to the city of Paris by le comité des scientifiques grecs en Europe (the committee of Greek scientists in Europe). Pan Dieu Grec, the god and protector of the wilderness. Sitting upon his shoulder is an owl, a symbol of wisdom, which sums up the donors pretty well. Smart guys saving the planet.
The cave! This is where the waterfall runs down into.
That is a blue helium balloon you can see on the cave's roof. It amused me.
The roof of the cave. It's hard to believe, but the stalactites are completely manufactured. We spent quite sometime studying the cave to decide if it was real or man made. It was so hard to tell that we had to get our final decision from the internet.
The end of the waterfall.
Lloyd standing in front of the waterfall on one of the man made stepping stones.
Like we said, we didn't get to see nearly enough of this park. You can expect a future visit for the simple fact it is one of our favourite places in Paris and given the good weather we have had these
last few days we'd be mad not to take advantage of a pre-winter picnic.
The official website for the park (from what I can translate) is here:
Here is a map to the place:
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