At the edge of the lake, a pair of black swans streak across the water, majestic.
Mallards and moorhens move away in their path.
On the banks, students from the Cité Universitaire take the sun, between families, joggers, and a few retirees who read peacefully on the green metal benches.
The Montsouris park, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, designed by the architect Adolphe Alphand between 1867 and 1878, is the counterpart of the Buttes-Chaumont park in the 19th century.
Both were designed on old quarries.
Les Buttes-Chaumont on gypsum, Montsouris on limestone.
The work lasted eleven years to stabilize the 15.4 hectare site.
The undulation will have made it possible to hide the two scars of this park.
First the railway line of the small Parisian belt, left abandoned, then the RER B line, formerly the connection from Sceaux to Paris, transformed into RER in 1977. Both, deep, are hidden by vegetation.
Napoleon III wanted to endow the cardinal points of Paris with green spaces as vast as the large London parks.
“A decree of 1860 allowed Napoleon to annex part of the neighboring municipalities to enlarge Paris.
The 14th century was created with the little Montrouge, like Gentilly and Ivry who were amputated to give part of the 13th century ", explains Ania Guini-Skiliar, lecturer guide and art historian.
The Montsouris park has a small lake and has 1,400 trees, often hundred years old.
LP / Delphine Goldsztejn
Montsouris is therefore inspired by English gardens, in a romanticism combining waterfalls, intimate corners and sculptures.
They are disseminated in harmony, but without thematic or aesthetic logic.
Below an embankment, the marble statue of a man carrying an injured person recalls the many accidents that occurred in these old quarries.
Another figure of suffering, “The Death of the Lion”, by Edmond Desca, the bronze original of which rests in the Petit Palais.
Would monuments that no one knew what to do with have found refuge here?
One, hidden behind a square, pays tribute to the troops of Colonel Paul Flatters, killed in 1861 on a reconnaissance mission in the Sahara.
Elsewhere, opposite the entrance to Avenue Reille, "La Paix Armée" stands atop a 12m granite column.
Moved from Square d'Anvers for parking purposes, this allegory of Franco-German relations has been decorating Montsouris since 1986. “The sculptures in the park were placed at very different times, depending on the opportunities”, laughs at them. the guide.
More romantic, “Nudity” is exhibited in bronze, not very far from “First thrill”, where a half-goat, half-man hybrid courts a shy shepherdess.
The lawns are interspersed with flowered plots of purple hyacinths, tulips and green bouquets in the shape of broccoli.
The sculpture “Premier shiver”, where a half-goat, half-man hybrid courts a shy shepherdess, by René Baucour (1921).
LP / Delphine Goldsztejn
The park has 1,400 trees, often centuries old, like this ginkgo biloba on the edge of the lake, the most imposing in the park.
We walk among them, passing under sequoias, a purple beech, a cork oak, admiring a plane tree 40 meters high planted before 1840. We listen to the song of the crested tit, that of the jay of the oaks.
Between lawns and small forest plots, the hilly landscape combines various atmospheres.
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We rest at the foot of a sculpture of a lioness who fights with a snake, we listen to the cries of children in a sandy square of conifers, we notice Florida turtles brought by the SPA after being abandoned by their owners, we lingers in front of eleven working beehives, painted by schoolchildren.
The walk ends with the famous weather observatory of Montsouris, quite ugly.
A stone's throw away, rises a sight built in 1806, which corresponds to that of Montmartre to determine the meridian of Paris.
But where does the name Montsouris come from?
It simply derives from that of "Mock-mouse", given the time when rodents swarmed in these wasteland quarries.
From the insalubrity was born this park of great beauty, however much less frequented than the Buttes-Chaumont.
Parc Montsouris
, 2, rue Gazan, in Paris (14th century).
Open daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Guided tour for a fee by appointment with Ania Guini-Skliar.
Contact:
ania.guni@gmail.com
WE DISCOVER.
The villas along rue Nansouty
The houses in the alleys and dead ends that border the park have an architecture that is well worth a look.
LP / Delphine Goldsztejn
The houses that line the alleys and dead ends of rue Nansouty are well worth stepping out of the park to admire their architecture.
They bear witness to a diversity and striking contrasts, between old workers' dwellings from the end of the 19th century in bricks and millstones, and small houses of country inspiration.
The tree-lined courtyards give a charming air to the walk.
The modern house with bay windows, at the corner of Avenue Reille and Square de Montsouris, was designed by Le Corbusier in 1920. A friend of the architect, the painter Amédée Ozenfant, had created his studio there. artist.
Cubist painter Georges Braque also lived in the neighborhood.
He commissioned his house from the architect Auguste Perret in 1927. The cube-shaped building is made of a concrete framework filled with bricks, with his workshop lit by a large glass roof on the 2nd floor, facing south, while the artists prefer to work on the north side for a more constant light.
Auguste Perret also built the Gaud house, at 2, square de Montsouris.
The Japanese artist Foujita also resided in one of these alleys.
This little country paradise has become a nugget of Parisian luxury real estate.
WE REMEMBER.
Adolphe Alphand, the park engineer
A magnificent staircase made by rockers of the time, these arborescent masonry craftsmen who imagined cement rockery or "faux wood", a rustic art more than a century old.
LP / Delphine Goldsztejn
We owe him the Bois de Boulogne and Vincennes, the parks of Buttes-Chaumont and Montsouris.
Adolphe Alphand will for 16 years draw the countryside in Paris, establishing green spaces at the cardinal points of the capital, at the request of Baron Haussmann.
He was spotted at 36, a faithful and loyal polytechnician, who did wonders by creating a sumptuous setting on the banks of the Garonne, in Bordeaux, during a visit from Napoleon III.
At the head of the Walks and Plantations service, where Haussmann installed him upon his arrival in the capital in 1854, Adolphe Alphand quickly became a sower of green spaces.
He created 24 squares accessible in half an hour on foot for all Parisians, as the emperor had demanded.
To get there, just follow the green line, its 50,000 alignment trees.
Alphand then took up the torch from Haussmann, disgraced in 1870. Until his death in 1891, he continued the work of his mentor, by controlling public space in all areas, from roads to transport, including sewers. and the frame.
He will not have time to impose his plant device, which will ultimately be dedicated to cars.
WE TAKE ADVANTAGE TO ...
Discover.
The Cité internationale universitaire de Paris, called Cité U, offers a stroll along its alleys.
Its 40 houses house 12,000 students and researchers from all over the world.
The estate has an exceptional architectural heritage, characterized by the diversity of styles, with buildings that look like straight from English colleges, or the refined house of Japan.
The house of Brazil and the Swiss Foundation are signed Le Corbusier.
The city testifies to the architectural diversity in vogue between 1925 and 1969.
Lunch.
Lebanese cuisine to take away during this period of restaurant closure with Assanabel, which offers home deliveries of stuffed lamb at 19.50 euros, tabbouleh with wheat at 7.50 euros, moussaka at 8 euros, mashed eggplants, chickpeas or vine leaves.
Rens.
01.42.79.86.86.
To visit.
The Marie-Thérèse Auffay garden, named after this resistant painter in 2019, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Paris.
It was previously known as the "ZAC-Alésia-Montsouris garden".
This original wave-shaped space is an idea of the contemporary painter Rorcha, who used the remains of two aqueducts, one Gallo-Roman and the other dating from Marie de Medici.
The gate of the aqueduct has been preserved.
The designers, under pressure from heritage associations, took advantage of the ruins to create an undulating space that stretches between the garden and a playground.
Not to be missed: the magnificent collection of cherry trees from Japan.
