Walking around the lakes of the
Bois de Boulogne, I was once again happy to find that the Paris gardeners now leave some (more and more) space for wild flowers....
Paris is a relatively small city, encircled by the Pereferique (ring road), with “only” some 2 million inhabitants (some 10 million in the Paris urban area).
There are more than 400 parks, gardens and green squares in Paris – and it’s getting greener every year. Totally it’s said to be Europe’s greenest capital. This includes then of course the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes, which somehow are just annexed, but each one covers an area which is two or three times larger than Central Park or Hyde Park.
Last week I had thus a walk around the major lakes in the
Bois de Boulogne in a nice early autumn weather.
Before talking about the lakes, what else can you find in the Bois de Boulogne which is officially part of Paris since 1852 and before that was a place for bandits, later for Royal hunting etc.?

There are two
hippodromes -
Auteuil (created 1873) for steeplechase racing and
Longchamp (created 1857) for flat racing, a small amusement park for children with a menagerie -
Jardin d’Acclimatation (opened 1860), the
Parc Bagatelle (opened 1835) with a famous rose garden and, in the extreme south, you find the Tennis Stadium
Roland Garros (first tournament 1891), where the French Championships (one of the four slams) are held. There are also a number of private sporting clubs, some nice restaurants... and a lot of space for walking, running, biking, horse riding, fishing ... and also eating and drinking in some nice restaurants. (During the dark hours you find also prostitutes.) Since its creation, the Bois (the Woods) has been a popular place, especially to spend part of your weekend. During the week, it’s very calm – as you can see.
The major lakes (
Lac Supérieur and
Lac Inférieur) were artificially created during the 1850’s. The Lower Lake, the bigger one, has two islands in the middle, with a bridge in between. You can reach them (and a restaurant) only by a small ferry (1€). On the islands it’s even calmer.





I met what I believe is a heron. It was so kind of posing (no zoom needed) that I have to give room for three photos.
