Parc Montsouris

The statue of "Pureté" by Costa Valsenis (1955) - a gift from Hellenes of France for its bimillenary.

Parc Montsouris is a public park in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, on the rive gauche (left bank of the River Seine.) The park is fifteen hectares in area, and it is styled as an English garden, a genre popular since the early 19th century. The park was ordained by Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann as part of a plan to add green areas to Paris.^[1]

The park is bounded to the south by the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris (CIUP), to the north and east by residential flats, and to the west by the residential district along the avenue Général Leclerc.

The water reservoir in the northeast portion of the park covers an historic entrance to the Paris catacombs.^{[citation needed]}

Cité Universitaire Stop on RER B

Cité Universitaire Stop on RER B

The "Cité Universitaire" stop on the line on the RER B (a main north-south train route running from Charles de Gaulle airport to the southern suburbs) is inside Parc Montsouris. It is distinguished by an open-air top and overhanging trees.

Etymology of "Montsouris"

According to the Park's official site^[1] maintained by the French government, the area was originally called moque souris (literally translated as "mock mice") because the area was inhabited by rodents. The name eventually evolved into Montsouris.

Trees, shrubs and statues

The Parc Montsouris is a popular place for students from the adjacent Cité Universitaire. The main upper lawn was used once for a golf tournament. In the lower section of the park, an island in the middle of a tiny lake provides sanctuary to forty species of wild ducks, geese, herons, and other migratory birds. Some turtles imported from Florida, regularly sunbathe on the lake's stony shores.

According to Montsouris's chief gardener, there are about 150 species of trees and shrubs in the park.^{[citation needed]}

The most common trees are:

• Horse-Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum)
• Common Yew (Taxus baccata)
• Cedar (Cedrus)
• Weeping beech (Fagus sylvatica tortuosa)
• Buttonwood (Platanus)

The rarer species include:

• Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba)
• Silk tree (Albizia julibrissin)
• Honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos)
• Princess tree (Paulownia tomentosa)
• Pride of India(Koelreuteria bipinnata)

The most common shrubs are:

• Spindle (Euonymus)
• Mahonia (Mahonia)
• Boxwood (Buxus)
• Aucuba (Aucuba)
• Viburnum rhytidophyllum (Viburnum)
• Tinus (Laurustinus Viburnum)

Sculptures in bronze and marble include:

• "Column of the Armed Peace" by Jules-Felix Coutan (1887)
• "First thrill" by René Baucour (1921)
• "Lion's death" by Edmond Desca (1929)
• "Women bathers" by Maurice Lipsi (1952)
• "Shipwrecked" by Antoine Étex (1859)
• "Desert drama" by Georges Gardet (1891)
• "Purity" by Costas Valsamis (1955)
• "Mine accident" by Henri Bouchard (1900)
• "Monument commemorating Colonel Flatters" by Singery
• "Statue of General San Martin" by Van Peborgh (1960)

Gallery

• 

  Weeping beeches (Fagus sylvatica tortuosa) encircle the centre lake of the Montsouris Park. There are at least four of them weeping directly into the water and three others two steps away from it.

• 

  Swan Goose (Anser cygnoides) lying on a bed of Magnolia leaves beneath its branches close to the lake of the Montsouris park.

• 

  A duo of painted buckeye (aesculus sylvatica) trees at the entrance of Montsouris park on the upper lawn looks like a united one two-legged tree. Their exceptional sizes are due to their grafts on the horse-chestnut trees (aesculus hippocastanum).

• 

  Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), the unique one of the Montsouris park growing close to the footbridge over the RER suburb train, yields a red colour, in contrast to the Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera) to its left and the Austrian Pine (Pinus nigra) to its right.

• 

  A lake in the park.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Paris portal: Principaux parcs: Parc Montsouris (French)

• Downie, David (2005), Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light, Fort Bragg: Transatlantic Press, ISBN 0-9769251-0-9 : "Montsouris and Buttes-Chaumont: the art of the faux", pp. 34–41

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Parc Montsouris

• Parc Montsouris — Postcards of the park from the beginning of the 20th century.
• Trees and shrubs (English)

Coordinates: 48°49′20″N 2°20′18″E / 48.82222°N 2.33833°E / 48.82222; 2.33833