A park laid in 1988 on the old Bastille–Varenne railway, closed in 1969: 4.5 km of gardens running from Bastille over viaducts and through tunnels and cuttings towards the Bois de Vincennes.
Photo: Frédéric Combeau / Ville de Paris
Distance
4.5 km
Difficulty
Easy
Start
Bastille end, by the Opéra Bastille (avenue Daumesnil / rue de Lyon, access by stairs; lift at rue Hector-Malot)
Past
Viaduc des Arts and its craftsmen's workshops in the arches below, Jardin de Reuilly, Tunnels and cuttings of the old Bastille–Varenne line, Ends near the Bois de Vincennes (Porte Dorée)
Season
Open 25 October 2026–28 February 2027 Monday–Friday 8:00–17:45, weekends 9:00–17:45 (paris.fr). Lime trees colour in autumn; bamboo all year (Ryo guide).
With children
Lift access is patchy: the rue Hector-Malot lift works, the lifts at 34 rue de Lyon and by the Leroy Merlin store were out of service when read (paris.fr). Bikes are not mentioned in the sources read.
The Seine banks: Notre-Dame to the TrocadéroThe classic Paris walk, west along the river from the restored cathedral to the…
Montmartre and the Butte: Pigalle to AbbessesUp through the old village streets of the Butte to the white domes of the Sacré-Cœur and…
The Marais: Place des Vosges to the Centre PompidouFrom the arcades of the Place des Vosges through the lanes and mansions of the Marais…
The covered passages: Galerie Vivienne to Passage VerdeauParis's 19th-century shopping arcades under glass, strung together across the Grands…
The Tuileries and the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de TriompheThe great axis of the city in one straight line: through the formal Tuileries garden…
Père-Lachaise cemeteryA wooded hill of tombs and chapels where Piaf, Chopin, Proust and Wilde lie – one of the…