Parc de Bagatelle
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An Anglo-Chinese gem in western Paris – born of a bet between Marie-Antoinette and the Count of Artois, who had bought the property in 1775 – and allegedly won: the park miraculously materialised in 64 days.
Essentials
Opened in 1777
240,900 sq m
Don’t’ miss
The rose beds, remarkable trees, themed gardens, exhibitions and concerts. Getting there :
- Allée de Longchamp, Route de Sèvres à Neuilly, Bois de Boulogne (Paris 16)
- Metro: Pont de Neuilly then bus line 43, or Porte Maillot then bus line 244
Getting there and opening hours
Anglo-Chinese style
Marie-Antoinette waged that the Count of Artois, who had bought this property in 1775, could not turn it into a park in 64 days.
Belanger designed it and Thomas Blaikie built it, to the day’s in-vogue anglo-chinois taste.
Bagatelle park and chateau only barely eluded obliteration during the Revolution, but a string of owners altered them considerably. The orangerie, gates and stables date back to 1835, and the guard’s lodgings were built in 1870, along with the Trianon and the two terraces.
The City of Paris bought this gem in 1905 and entrusted its head gardener, Jean-Claude-Nicolas Forestier, with the restoration work. He set out to turn these gardens into a botanical domain without upsetting the harmony that the existing layout had already established. He turned the subsistence crops into showcases for collections of roses, irises, perennials, clematises, peonies and other flowers.
The well-known Roseraie de Bagatelle (rose bed) which has hosted an international competition every year since 1907, is also the work of his hand.
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