Buttes Chaumont is one of the city’s largest green spaces, with landscaped slopes hiding grottoes, waterfalls, a lake and even an island topped with a temple to Sibylle. Once a gypsum quarry and rubbish dump, it was given its present form by Baron Haussmann in time for the opening of the 1867 Exposition Universelle. The tracks of the abandoned 19th-century Petite Ceinture railway line, which once circled Paris, run through the park.

　　It’s a favourite with Parisians, who come here to practise tai chi, take the kids to a puppet show, grab a sundowner and pizza at trendy Le Pavillon Puebla or simply to relax with a bottle of wine and a sundown picnic.