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Why you'll love the Monceau Park
On a nice afternoon, after you have seen all there is to see in Paris and you need a little moment of relaxation and fresh air, Monceau Park is that little piece of peace. Bring a picnic lunch, a book, your bathing suit, or a soccer ball, find a place in the sun or shade, and forget that you are in such a busy city.
With its beautiful large grass areas (that you can actually sit on, compared to most Parisian parks), its charming lake, and Roman-style columns, people from two to eighty years old come here to play, relax, talk, or get a good tan. (Ladies, even you won’t be bothered while you sun bathe.)
With children playing or riding ponies, couples kissing on the grass, beautiful bodies getting tan, and older people sitting and talking on the benches, Monceau Park is a beautiful place to spend a relaxing afternoon.
In 1778 when the Duke of Orleans first decided to build this beautiful park, his idea was to build a “picturesque garden and a place of illusions”.
Take Metro 2 to the stop MONCEAU and use the only exit there is. Once you exit the metro station, the main entrance to the park will be behind you.
We suggest going on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, bring a picnic lunch and just relax
With cool waterspouts almost every 200ft. bring a water bottle and fill it up as often as you want (for free).
To create this, he had built a false ancient Temple of Mars, a gothic castle, a dutch style windmill, an Egyptian pyramid, a Chinese pagoda, and a Roman pond with Corinthian columns. The park then saw a slight transformation in 1793 when little alleyways where added to encourage visitors to come. In 1852 the French government took over the garden and built large buildings around it, thus cutting the land of the park in half (the size we can now see today).
In 1861 Napoleon III inaugurated the park of today and added his own decorative elements such as the bridge, the grotto, and the waterfall. Although not all of Orleans’ creations are still standing, we encourage you to visit the park and to find out for yourselves what remains of this “place of illusions”.
