The wood of Vincennes is a park located at the East of Paris, in France. As opposed to what one could think, it does not draw his name from the town of Vincennes located at his northern limit. It is actually this locality which took the name of the park during its erection in commune after the French revolution.
With a surface of 995 hectares, the wood of Vincennes is more Parisian green big space.

History

When Hugues Capet fixes his residence on the island of the City, this wood close to the Confluence of the Marne and the the Seine, unsuitable with the culture, becomes its hunting ground. There will remain an hunting ground with the exclusive use of the Kings de France. Under Philippe Auguste, it was closed by an enclosure of twelve kilometers. Several royal manors were built in the vicinity (of which the Château of Vincennes), before wood is not arranged in walk under Louis XV. According to the legend, it is in this wood that Saint Louis was considered to return justice under a Chêne.

After the French revolution, wood becomes a zone of military training. The army clears 166 hectares and builds various buildings: polygon of shooting, cartridge factory, quarterings…

The wood of Vincennes was arranged with its current appearance under Napoleon III by Jean-Charles Alphand, engineer, and Jean-Pierre Barrel-Deschamps architect. It was intended to become the counterpoint of the Bois de Boulogne, located at the west of Paris. It was drawn in the style of the English gardens with the plantation of various species of trees and the digging of a network of lakes and rivers. It supplemented, with the parks of the Hillocks Chaumont and the Montsouris park the grid of the parks envisaged at the four cardinal points of the capital by Alphand.

The majority of the tests of the Olympic Games of summer of 1900 were disputed in the wood of Vincennes, which was officially incorporated in Paris in 1929, as well as the castle which returned in 1934 on the municipal territory of Vincennes.
The colonial exposure of 1930 was built in the wood of Vincennes.

The hydraulic network and lakes

Established on a sandy plate, wood did not comprise in the beginning any hydraulic network. Alphand made dig the Lac of Gravel on the highest point of the plate in order to irrigate all the other lakes (except for the Lac of Saint-Mandé). The Gravel lake, initially supplied with water of the the Marne, is currently connected to the Seine by the factory of pumping of Austerlitz. The bottom of the network of brooks and rivers drawn by Alphand was coated with marl to ensure the sealing of the works. At the 20th century, the bottom of the whole of the network was cemented.

The wood of Vincennes comprises four lakes supplied with the network of the rivers:

• the Lake of Gravel, located at South-east, is used as concerning the other lakes
• the Lac of Tiny the, in the North-East, comprises two islands
• the Lac of Saint-Mandé, at the North-West
• the Lac Daumesnil, largest, is located at the western end of wood. It in addition comprises two islands, the island of Reuilly and the island of Bercy, accessible by bridges. Close to the banks of the Lac Daumesnil is the Pagode of Vincennes and the Buddhist Temple Tibetan of Kagyu-Dzong.

A complex management

• Just like the Bois de Boulogne in the West, the wood of Vincennes is not regarded as belonging to Paris will intra muros , being entirely composed of public grounds without permanent population (put-with-share some guards). Administratively, it however forms part of the 12 {{E}} district (Districts of Picpus and Beautiful-Air).
• Its membership of Paris and its joint ownership with seven communes of the the Valley-of-Marne generates conflicts of interests relating to the use, the police force or the maintenance of wood. In spite of the pressure of the bordering cities, the town of Paris refuses with a coadministration of the field. She wishes to preserve wood like land concerning possible equipment, very as much as as free zone external with her territory on which temporary demonstrations (Foire of the Throne, circuses) or awkward populations are intallent (prostitution, gatherings motorcylcists, SDF).

Equipment

Several installations use the space of the wood of Vincennes:

• the racecourse of the Hippodrome of Vincennes.
• the riding school of UCPA.
• the Castle of Vincennes access by the subway station Castle of Vincennes .
• the school of Breuil.
• the Firm Georges-City.
• the National institute of the sports and physical education (INSEP).
• the tropical garden, created for the colonial exposure of 1907, access Nogent the RER line A.
• the Floral garden
• the Zoological gardens of Vincennes access by the subway station Gilded Door .
• the Redoute de Gravelle
• the Buddhist temple, on the edges of the Lake Daumesnil, in the old houses of Cameroun and the Togo of the colonial Exposure access the subway station Gilded Door .
• the Cartridge factory of Vincennes gathering eight theaters or workshops of artistic creation of which the Theater of the Sun of ARIANE Mnouchkine.
• the Vélodrome Jacques-Anquetil says the Cipale access by the subway station Liberté .

In spring, wood also accommodates the Foire of the Throne on the lawn of Reuilly, located at its Western limit.

Access

+ Stations the RER of Vincennes, Fontenay-sous-Bois, Nogent and Joinville

Roads

The wood of Vincennes is crossed by several road axes. During the last decade, several ways were made inaccessible to the motorized vehicles and were reserved for soft circulations (cyclists, riders and pedestrians). A new whole of ways was closed with circulation for safety reasons following the storm of December 1999. This temporary prohibition became final thereafter.

Gallery

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