Relatively unknown outside the capital, the Coulée Verte offers an unusual experience in Paris. And guess what? This partially elevated linear park begins near our Hotel L'Interlude. It’s a great way to reach Bastille from the Bois de Vincennes and vice versa on foot while getting a totally different perspective on the capital. Go green!
The Coulée Verte: a 4.5 km green promenade in Paris
Head to the renovated arches of the Viaduc des Arts on the Avenue Daumesnil. Here you can access the planted linear park now called the Coulée Verte, which forms a 4.5 km route along a disused railway line. The space has been carefully arranged and planted with a variety of greenery throughout. It’s so tranquil and beautiful!
This pretty path leads to the bridge overlooking the Boulevard Diderot. Here, it’s shaded by a lengthy series of bamboos up to the footbridge and the Jardin de Reuilly, where small gardens and magnificent statues adorn more than 15,000 m² of lawn. Facing the fountain, a tunnel revealing waterfalls and rocks takes you to the rest of the Coulée Verte, which runs below the level of the roads to the Square Charles Péguy.
With its footbridges, tunnels, remnants of the old railway line and wealth of greenery that sometimes wilds into field bindweed and wild poppies, this walk is enchantingly varied.
The history of the Promenade Plantée and Coulée Verte René-Dumont
From 1859, a railway line linked the Place de la Bastille to the district of La Varenne-Saint-Maur.
Ceasing operations in late 1969, it gave way to a series of 4 green spaces scattered along its route: the Jardin Hector-Malot, the Jardin de Reuilly-Paul-Pernin, the Jardin de la Gare-de-Reuilly and the Square Charles-Péguy.
In 1988, the Promenade Plantée project was designed by the architect Philippe Mathieux and the landscape architect Jacques Vergely. It was later named the Coulée Verte, then the Coulée Verte René-Dumont, in tribute to the famous agronomist and ecologist.
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Photo : Coulée Verte © Paris Tourist Office - Photographe Amélie Dupont
Hotel L'Interlude, a 3-star hotel in the heart of the 12th arrondissement
