Bois de Boulogne Facts for Kids

The lower lake in the Bois de Boulogne

The Bois de Boulogne is a large public park in the west of Paris. It was created between 1852 and 1858 during the reign of the Emperor Louis Napoleon. It is in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine.

The Bois is the second-largest park in Paris, a bit smaller than the Bois de Vincennes on the eastern side of the city. It covers an area of 8.46 square kilometres, which is 2.5 times larger than Central Park in New York, and comparable in size to Richmond Park in London.

Within the boundaries of the Bois de Boulogne are an English landscape garden with several lakes and a cascade; two smaller botanical and landscape gardens; a zoo and amusement park; a complex of greenhouses holding a hundred thousand plants; two tracks for horse racing; a tennis stadium where the French Open tournament is held each year; and other attractions.

Bois de Boulogne

Images for kids

Bois de Boulogne as seen from the Eiffel Tower
The plan of the park from 1879 shows the two straight alleys of the old Bois, and the lakes, winding lanes and paths built by Alphand.
The Grand Cascade
The giant sequoia tree in the Pré-Catelan, planted in 1872.
The Bois received its name during the reign of King Philip IV of France, when he built a replica there of a shrine to the Virgin Mary, which he had visited in the seaside town of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
The Château de Madrid in the Bois de Boulogne, built in 1526 by Francis I of France. It was demolished after the French Revolution.
The Château de la Muette was the home of Queen Marguerite de Valois after her marriage was annulled by King Henry IV of France.
The Château de Bagatelle was built by the brother of Louis XVI in just 64 days, in a wager with his sister-in-law, Marie Antoinette.
The first free manned flight was launched by the Montgolfier Brothers from the Château de la Muette, on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, on 21 November 1783.
The artificial cliffs and grotto of the Grand Cascade became one of the most popular meeting places in the Bois De Boulogne (1858)
Aerial view of the Longchamp racecourse before the construction of the Hippodrome (1854).
Grandstands of the Longchamp Hippodrome (1854)
The zoo and Jardin d'Acclimatation in 1860 was filled with exotic plants and animals
The aviary in the zoo had a collection of rare birds (1860)
Skaters in the Bois de Boulogne (1868), by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
A horse race in the Bois de Boulogne (1872), by Édouard Manet
Strollers in the Bois de Boulogne (1886), by Vincent van Gogh
Students from a convent school by the lake in the Bois de Boulogne (1898)
Bois de Boulogne cyclists, by Jean Baptiste Guth in Vanity Fair, June 1897
An evening at Pré Catelan, the restaurant in the Pré-Catelan in 1909, painted by Alexandre Gervex
The pond of the Bagatelle garden contains a wide variety of Nymphaeaceae, or water lilies.
The rose garden of the Bagatelle is the site each June of an international competition for new varieties of roses.
The Grand Cascade connects the two lakes in the Bois.
The Kiosk of the Emperor on the lower lake.
Winter scene in the Pré-Catelan.
A cedar of Lebanon tree (cedrus libani) in the Bois de Boulogne.
The garden of the Château de Bagatelle.
A bear in the zoo of the Jardin d'Acclimatation.
The greenhouses of Auteuil contain a hundred thousand plants.
The windmill at the Hippodrome de Longchamp is a vestige of the old Abbey of Longchamp, destroyed after the French Revolution.
The Hippodrome de Longchamp is the main racetrack of Paris
The Stade de Roland Garros is the home of the annual French Open tennis tournament.

Bois de Boulogne facts for kids

Images for kids

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