The view looking down into the park from the entrance above.

Updated February 2025

The model for its contemporary American cousin, The High Line, Paris’s Promenade Plantée––also known as the Coulée Verte or “Flowing Green”––was the world’s first and only elevated park before its New York relative spawned numerous followers, including Chicago’s Bloomingdale Trail, Philadelphia’s Reading Viaduct, Rotterdam’s Hofplein station, and the partially completed Chapultepec Forest Project in Mexico City that will link a subway station to the city’s largest park, Chapultepec Forest.

Covered passages open onto open expansive and intimate seating areas.

Built on the former train tracks of the Vincennes railway, the city resurrected the park in 1990 to create an extensive urban green belt. The park runs about 2.8 miles along nearly the entire length of Paris’s 12th arrondissement, from the Bois de Vincennes on one end to the Place de la Bastille on the other, its last hundred yards opening onto the Opéra Bastille.

Reflecting pools were dry but I could imagine how they looked filled.

Rising almost hidden 3o feet above the busy streets below it, the roughly one-mile-long elevated portion of the Promenade Plantée is supported by the Viaduct des Arts, a series of 70 arches that were once part of an old crumbling railroad viaduct rescued from scheduled demolition and restored in 1998. The Viaduct is now home to a restaurant and cafe, several furniture showrooms, 45 studios of interior designers, cabinet-makers, sculptors, ceramicists, tapestry-makers, violin and flute makers, furniture restorers, and more.

An outdoor gallery: the trellised wall beside the stone and painted facade was a study in contrasts.

My journey began on the ground-level portion of the park, a few blocks off the Place Felix Eboué where the Avenue Daumesnil intersects the Boulevard de Reuilly. I tend to be geographically challenged, and my GPS did not show an entrance, nor were there any signs confirming I was anywhere near the park. Although I speak French, when I asked several passersby, no one could direct me there. After wandering about the neighborhood a bit, I happened upon an inconspicuous stairway where I spotted a small sign marking one of the park’s entrances.

Descending the flight of stairs, I found myself on the sought-after verdant path, which delivered me into an underground tunnel-turned-grotto with waterfalls. The pass-through offered the pleasant sound of trickling water as I approached the other end. I hadn’t yet reached the elevated portion of the park.

After the Allée Vivaldi, there is a little bonus gift from the Jardin de Reuilly. A tiny detour into this charming park took me off the path for a moment, but one that was well worth it. I found a perfect bench for an afternoon snack.

The Promenade includes some incredibly narrow passages. Just after crossing the footbridge to the elevated portion above, the walkway passes through two buildings where pedestrians squeeze their way between the structures that look like they were once one but were later sliced down the middle. Like a living being with many personalities, each part of this elevated park offered a different view of the city, accompanied by all its Parisian scents and flavors.

Joggers ran by, mothers pushed strollers, and lovers walked arm in arm or kissed on park benches as I navigated the linear greenscape past roses and hollyhocks while inhaling the potent scent of rosemary wafting in the breeze.

Arched grapevine trellises, allées of bamboo, and columns of fragrant flowers punctuate the Promenade, all landscape elements marking various design periods in garden design history. And, ah! There were so many roses!

At some points, I had a voyeuristic bird’s-eye view into some Parisian apartments and terraces. Although their privacy may sometimes be compromised, how fortunate those residents are to have this hidden garden in the sky right in their backyards.

The park’s allées mark entrances to its various sections, each defined by different plantings and types of hardscaping.

Check out those French derrières!

Every turn revealed another jewel: small reflecting pools, architectural details, and some colossal al fresco classic sculptures. At one point along the way, I spotted a building facade adorned with 12 reproductions of Michelangelo’s “The Dying Slave.” The original statues reside in the permanent collection at the Louvre.

The final stretch took me to the edge of the Bastille. I felt just as I do after enjoying a fabulous French meal: sated but wanting more. Is anyone up for a walk?

Photos by Robin Plaskoff Horton.