With the wonderful weather we have had since a couple of days, it’s time to visit parks. (Unfortunately some clouds came in during part of my visit to this one.)The Parc des Buttes de Chaumont is probably the largest park in Paris. “Buttes” means “hills” and “Chaumont” derives from “chauve mont”, meaning the “bald mountain”. It’s actually very hilly with a lot of cliffs, bridges, grottos, a small waterfall, a lake… and, especially, a belvedere.
From the belvedere you have an excellent view of the park and the surroundings.
The park is more specialised in different varieties of trees than on flowers. I read that you can find Himalayan Cedar, Ginko Biloba, Byzantine Hazelnut, Siberian Elm, European Holly, Bamboo-leaf Prickly-ash etc… but don’t ask me to identify them on these pictures. 
The park was created in 1867 at the occasion of one of Paris’ Universal Exhibitions. Baron Haussmann was again involved. It used to be a quarry, mined for gypsum and limestone. A lot of fighting has been done on this area involving as well Vikings as Prussians. You used to find gallows where criminals were executed.Today the atmosphere is quite different and around the lake very romantic.
There are a lot of activities for kids, including a famous “guignol” (puppet-show) theatre.
You can find some of these pictures on my photo-blog.
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