The Cours-la-Reine, also spelled Cours la Reine (without hyphens), is a public park and garden promenade located along the River Seine, between the Place de la Concorde and the Place du Canada, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It is one of the oldest parks in Paris, created in 1616 by Queen Marie de Medicis. [1] The further extension of the garden between Place du Canada to Place d'Alma is called the Cours Albert Premier.
Queen Marie de Medicis, nostalgic for the gardens of her native Florence, created the Cours-la-Reine not long after she began making the Luxembourg Garden (1612-1630). At the time it was outside of Paris, on the way to Chaillot, through fields and marshes. The Queen built ornamental gates at either end of the kilometer and a half long garden and planted four rows of elm trees, with a wide lane in the middle. It became a popular meeting place for the nobility, where young aristocrats looked for husbands and wives of equal rank. [2]
The garden was rebuilt in 1723, and the banks of the river were walled in 1769. Along with the Avenue des Champs-Élysėes, it formed one of the paths radiating out of the Place de la Concorde, like the three alleys radiating from the Palace of Versailles.
After World War I, the park was divided into two, and the part between Place du Canada and Place d'Alma was renamed Cours Albert Premier, after the King of the Belgians, France's staunch ally during the War.
In 1947 it was used, along with the Grand Palais, to host the 1947 International Exhibition on Urbanism and Housing. [3]
The Cours la Reine is 6800 square meters in area, and the Cours Albert Premier occupies 4950 square meters. They are currently planted with long rows of chestnut trees. The park contains several statues. One of King Albert I on horseback by Armand Matial (1938) and another of Simon Bolivar, as well as one by Antoine Bourdelle of the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, who was exiled to Paris, and finally an equestrian statue of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette by Paul Wayland Bartlett (1908), which was moved here when the space in front of the Louvre was remodeled.
The Cours-la-Reine is the setting for the first scene of Act III of Jules Massenet's Manon .
40 Cours-la-Reine was the home and workshop of Rene Lalique from 1902 until his death in 1945 at the age of 85
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, 1.9 kilometres (1.2 mi) long and 70 metres (230 ft) wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is located. It is known for its theatres, cafés, and luxury shops, as the finish of the Tour de France cycling race, as well as for its annual Bastille Day military parade. The name is French for the Elysian Fields, the place for dead heroes in Greek mythology. It has been described as the "most beautiful avenue in the whole world".
The Tuileries Garden is a public garden located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. Created by Catherine de' Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was eventually opened to the public in 1667 and became a public park after the French Revolution. Since the 19th century, it has been a place where Parisians celebrate, meet, stroll and relax.
The Jardin du Luxembourg, known in English as the Luxembourg Garden, colloquially referred to as the Jardin du Sénat, is located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France. Creation of the garden began in 1612 when Marie de' Medici, the widow of King Henry IV, constructed the Luxembourg Palace as her new residence. The garden today is owned by the French Senate, which meets in the Palace. It covers 23 hectares and is known for its lawns, tree-lined promenades, tennis courts, flowerbeds, model sailboats on its octagonal Grand Bassin, as well as picturesque Medici Fountain, built in 1620. The name Luxembourg comes from the Latin Mons Lucotitius, the name of the hill where the garden is located.
Avenue Foch is an avenue in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France, named after World War I Marshal Ferdinand Foch in 1929. It is one of the most prestigious streets in Paris, and one of the most expensive addresses in the world, home to many grand palaces, including ones belonging to the Onassis and Rothschild families. The Rothschilds once owned numbers 19-21. The avenue runs from the Arc de Triomphe southwest to the Porte Dauphine at the edge of the Bois de Boulogne city park. It is the widest avenue in Paris and is lined with chestnut trees along its full length.
Parc Monceau is a public park situated in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, at the junction of Boulevard de Courcelles, Rue de Prony and Rue Georges Berger. At the main entrance is a rotunda. The park covers an area of 8.2 hectares.
Parc Montsouris is a public park situated in southern Paris, France. Located in the 14th arrondissement, it was officially inaugurated in 1875 after an early opening in 1869.
The French formal garden, also called the jardin à la française, is a style of "landscape" garden based on symmetry and the principle of imposing order on nature. Its epitome is generally considered to be the Gardens of Versailles designed during the 17th century by the landscape architect André Le Nôtre for Louis XIV and widely copied by other European courts.
Gardens of the French Renaissance were initially inspired by the Italian Renaissance garden, which evolved later into the grander and more formal jardin à la française during the reign of Louis XIV, by the middle of the 17th century.
The Medici Fountain is a monumental fountain in the Jardin du Luxembourg in the 6th arrondissement in Paris. Built in about 1630, it was commissioned by Marie de' Medici, the widow of King Henry IV of France and regent of King Louis XIII of France. It was moved to its present location and extensively rebuilt in 1864-1866.
Paris today has more than 421 municipal parks and gardens, covering more than three thousand hectares and containing more than 250,000 trees. Two of Paris's oldest and most famous gardens are the Tuileries Garden, created in 1564 for the Tuileries Palace, and redone by André Le Nôtre in 1664; and the Luxembourg Garden, belonging to a château built for Marie de' Medici in 1612, which today houses the French Senate. The Jardin des Plantes was the first botanical garden in Paris, created in 1626 by Louis XIII's doctor Guy de La Brosse for the cultivation of medicinal plants. Between 1853 and 1870, the Emperor Napoleon III and the city's first director of parks and gardens, Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand, created the Bois de Boulogne, the Bois de Vincennes, Parc Montsouris and the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, located at the four points of the compass around the city, as well as many smaller parks, squares and gardens in the neighborhoods of the city. One hundred sixty-six new parks have been created since 1977, most notably the Parc de la Villette (1987–1991) and Parc André Citroën (1992).
The Jardin des Champs-Élysées is a public park located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It occupies 13.7 hectares, and is located on both sides of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées between the Place de la Concorde on the east and the Rond-point des Champs-Élysées on the west and between Avenue Gabriel to the north and the Seine to the south. It includes within its boundaries the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, as well as a theater and other buildings. It was one of the first parks in the city, laid out by André Le Notre in 1667, and was the site of the Paris International Exposition of 1855 and an important part of the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900, for which the Grand Palais and Petit Palais were created.
Parc Georges-Brassens is a public park located in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, between rue des Morillons and rue de Périchaux. Opened in 1984, it occupies 7.74 hectares on the site of a former fish market, horse market and slaughterhouse, and preserves some of the old market structures. It is named for the French popular singer Georges Brassens (1921–1981) who lived in the neighborhood of the park at 9 impasse Florimont and 42 rue Santos Dumont. The nearest metro stations to the park are Convention and Porte-de-Vanves.
The Parc de la Butte-du-Chapeau-Rouge formerly known as the Square de la Butte-du-Chapeau-Rouge, is a public park in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, which was created in 1939. It is an example of 1930s modernist park design, and contains a fountain and works of sculpture from the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) held at the Trocadéro.
The Parc floral de Paris is a public park and botanical garden located within the Bois de Vincennes in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. Created in 1969, the park remains the legacy of the international horticultural exposition, which was organised under the auspices of the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) and recognised by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE). It is one of four botanical gardens in Paris, and is the site of major annual flower shows. The nearest metro station to the park is Chateau-de-Vincennes.
Parc Kellermann is a public park located in the 13th arrondissement of Paris which was created between 1939 and 1950 on the former bed of the Bièvre river. The park is located between boulevard Kellermann, the rue de la Poterne-des-Peupliers, and rue Max-Jacob. The nearest metro station to the park is Porte-d'Italie.
The Jardin du Bassin de l'Arsenal is a public park in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, located on the east bank of the Canal Saint-Martin between the Place de la Bastille and the Seine. It was created in 1983. The access to the park is from boulevard de la Bastille. The nearest metro station is Bastille.
