Bois de Boulogne
Under Napoleon III, the development of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris was an ambitious project.
Bagatelle
Grande Cascade
The Bois de Boulogne is located to the west of Paris.
Its area is 845 hectares, or 2.5 times larger than the area of Central Park.
In 1852, Napoleon III ceded ownership of the Bois de Boulogne to the city of Paris.
The city was responsible for developing this green space in four years and entrusted the work to the architect Jacques Hittorff and the landscaper Louis-Sulpice Varé
.
The emperor wanted a river similar to the Serpentine in Hyde Park in London.
Varé forgot the 6 meter difference in height in his project, which would have dried up the upper part and flooded the lower part.
Adolphe Alphand, engineer, took over and remodeled the floors and reliefs.
He teamed up with landscaper Jean-Pierre Barillet-Deschamps to transform the Varé river into two lakes.
Alphand created an English-style landscape with winding paths, ponds, artificial rivers and groups of rockeries.
The Bois de Boulogne has become an emblematic green space of Paris thanks to these carefully carried out developments.