Parc des Buttes Chaumont

Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in the 19th arrondissement is the most dramatic landscape park in Paris. Created in 1867 for the World's Fair under Napoleon III by Jean-Charles Alphand on a former gypsum quarry and rubbish dump, the nearly 25-hectare park stages English-style nature with artificial cliffs, caves and an artificial lake. On a rock island in the middle, 50 metres high, stands the Temple de la Sibylle, a miniature copy of the Roman Temple of Vesta at Tivoli, reached by two bridges including the slender Pont des Suicides immortalised by Andre Breton in the Surrealist movement. Today it is one of the favourite picnic spots of young Parisians and the hip residents of the 19th and 20th arrondissements.