Parc de Choisy

Fountains and Trees in the 13th Arrondissement

Parc de Choisy

Metro: Place d'Italie; Tolbiac

Arrondissement: 13eme

128 Avenue de Choisy

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Map of the Area

Between 1836-1937, the area of Parc de Choisy was used as a storage site of gas intended for domestic use. Seven enormous bell-tanks and gasometers were partially buried here in old underground quarries.

Today, the area is also the site of the Claude Monet high-school and the Foundation George Eastman dental clinic.

George Eastman (1854–1932) was an American inventor and industrialist and philanthropist who invented a dry-plate process of photographic film development, flexible film, a hand-held box camera, and a process for color photography.

His philanthropies were estimated at over $100 million: the principal recipients being the University of Rochester and the Eastman School of Music, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tuskegee and Hampton institutes, Rochester Dental Dispensary and dental clinics in several European capitals.

The park is basically a T-intersection of two wide walkways with a fountain where they meet. The Foundation George Eastman runs along the north side of the park and an outdoor stage is found at the south end of the park.

The middle of the park is a wide open lawn. Along the east and west sides of this lawn are double rows of trees providing deep and cooling shade lined with benches.

There is a lovely variety of trees in this park including ash, beech, robinier, chestnut, linden, sophoras, gingko biloba, silver-leafed pear, pterocaryas and libocedrus.

Also planted here is an "Arbre de la Liberté", a "Tree of Liberty". This tree was inaugurated on July 9, 1939, on the 150th anniversary of the Revolution. The original plaque was stolen by Fascists during the Occupation of Paris during World War II. This plaque was ceremoniously replaced on August 25, 1945 by the representatives of the 13th arrondissement and by the Commitee of the Liberation.

Parc de Choisy is equipped with ping-pong tables, foos-ball tables, a basket-ball court, children's playgrounds including sand-boxes and swings, a small carousel, a marionette theatre and a snack café.

Parc de Choisy opens at 8 a.m. on week-days and at 9 a.m. on week-ends. It closes at sunset.

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