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This enormous park is the Parisians’ favourite green retreat, especially on summer weekends when its 865 ha (2,135 acres) can become crowded. There is plenty to do, apart from simply walking and picnicking, such as cycling, riding, boating or visiting the various attractions. These include parks within the park, two race courses and an art and folk museum. The park is open 24 hours a day, but it should be avoided after dark.

To the southeast of the city centre lies the vast parkland of the Bois de Vincennes. Amid its greenery are three lakes, including a boating lake, along with the “Parc Floral” and its Four-Seasons Garden, a zoo, Buddhist Centre, and a summer amusement park. The beautiful Château de Vincennes, surrounded by a wall and a moat, was the French royal residence prior to the building of Versailles. After the Revolution Napoleon converted it into an arsenal.

At the same time as he re-designed central Paris (see The Second Empire), Baron Haussmann created the Bois de Boulogne. This chateau was given to Haussmann as a thank-you from Napoleon III.

This is the most visited cemetery in the world, largely due to rock fans who come from around the world to see the grave of the legendary singer Jim Morrison of The Doors. There are about one million other graves here, in some 70,000 different tombs, including those of Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Balzac, Edith Piaf, Colette, Molière and Delacroix (see Oscar Wilde, Père Lachaise Cemetery). There are maps posted around the cemetery to enable you to find these notable resting places, or a more detailed plan can be bought at the kiosks around the grounds.

This small circus puts on a new show each year, with jugglers, clowns, tightrope walkers and acrobats performing from November until March.

Visitors with children will probably have no choice about whether they visit the Paris branch of Disneyland or not. However, any parents who are sceptical might be pleasantly surprised, as the hi-tech workings and imagination behind such attractions as “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “The Haunted House” are extremely impressive. The new Walt Disney Studios involve visitors interactively through film, with a professional stunt show at the end.

The Bois is home to two race courses. To the west is the Hippodrome de Longchamp, where flat racing takes place including the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (see Fête du Cinéma); in the east, the Hippodrome d’Auteuil holds steeplechases.

This 19th-century garden has a series of greenhouses where ornamental hothouse plants are grown. In the centre is a palm house with tropical plants.

The main children’s area of the Bois incorporates a small amusement park, a zoo with a farm and a pets’ corner, and a Herb Museum aimed especially at children.

The flair of French artistic vision and Parisian style are both clearly shown by this modern urban development. This new business and government centre was purposely built to the west of the city to allow the centre to remain unmarred by skyscrapers. More than just offices, however, the area is also an attraction in its own right, with stunning modern architecture including the Grande Arche, a cube-like structure with a centre large enough to contain Notre-Dame, and surrounded by artworks, a fountain, cafés and restaurants.