Promenade Plantée (Coulée Verte)
Built on a disused 19th-century railway viaduct, the Promenade Plantée runs 4.7 kilometres from Bastille to the Bois de Vincennes — and inspired New York's High Line a decade before it opened.
Walking Above the City
The elevated section begins at the Viaduc des Arts on Avenue Daumesnil and rises to rooftop level, threading between Haussmann apartment buildings close enough to see into the upper-floor windows. It's an intimate, almost voyeuristic view of Parisian domestic life.
The planting is genuinely beautiful — roses, lavender, bamboo groves and cherry trees depending on the season — maintained by the city's parks department to a high standard. In May the wisteria tunnels near the Bastille end are Instagram gold.
The Viaduc des Arts Below
The brick arches beneath the elevated section have been converted into the Viaduc des Arts, a series of ateliers and boutiques occupied by craftspeople — violin-makers, furniture restorers, couture embroiderers and a wonderful art bookshop called Librairie Yvon Lambert.
It's worth walking the ground-level arcade before or after the elevated path to watch artisans at work through the glass-fronted workshops.
Planning Your Walk
The full 4.7km takes about 90 minutes at a leisurely pace, finishing at the Bois de Vincennes where you can rent a rowing boat on Lac Daumesnil. The western (Bastille) end is the most dramatic — start here by taking Métro line 1 or 5 to Bastille and climbing the stairs at 1 Avenue Daumesnil.
The promenade is free, open daily and almost entirely unknown to first-time visitors — on a weekday morning you may share it only with joggers and neighbourhood dog walkers.
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