Paris park "Parc Montsouris"

History and description of the Paris park "Parc Montsouris"

Before being called, "Parc Montsouris" the place was occupied by the quarry of Montrouge.
The park was built under Napoleon III who wanted to create parks and gardens in the 4 cardinal points of Paris.
The baron Haussman was in charge of the works, with his team the engineers Alphand and Darcel as well as the horticulturist Barillet Deschamps (the same team who built the square des Batignolles, the parc des Buttes-Chaumont , the parc Monceau...).
Alphand designed the park which was inaugurated in 1878. The little mice that lived on the quay of the Bievre, at the foot of the mills, gave their name to the park (souris=mouse).

The Parc Montsouris has an area of 16ha.
It is also decorated with several sculptures made between 1878 and 1960 ("Mort du lion" par Edmond Desca (1929), "Premier frisson" de René Baucour (1921), "Thomas Paine " par S. Borglum (1934)...

The fauna and flora rich and diversified, with ducks, swans, nuthatches, tits, crows...cedar of Lebanon, ginkgo biloba, chinese parasol tree...the majority of the trees of the park, is more than 100 year-old.
The Paris park houses the meteorological observatory of Montsouris, and a 5m high dark stone obelisk with a large circular opening on the top.
Across the bridge (beyond the RER line), there are also an artificial lake of 1 ha.

Drame au désert (Drama in the desert)

Creative commons

Location of the Paris park "Parc Montsouris"

The park is located on the 14th arrondissement of Paris.

How to get to the Park

To go to the Paris park, you can use the Paris rer B, station cité universitaire.

Entrance fee and opening hours

The park is a free-admission park, the opening hours are 8:00am on the week, and 9:00am on the weekend.
The closing hours depend on the season, around 5:30pm on the winter and 9:30pm on the summer.

Paris park "Parc Montsouris" map