A Walking Tour Paris

King Childeric II to the Abbey of St-Denis. Philippe-Augustus bought back the main part of the forest for use as a hunting ground and over the centuries it became the haunt of bandits, and it remained so even when François I built his fabled Château de Madrid here in the early 16th century (which has since vanished). The Compte d’Artois built the beautiful Château de Bagatelle in 1777, supposedly in 64 days to win a bet with his sister-in-law, Queen Marie-Antoinette. The Bois was turned into a park by Haussmann in 1852, who had it designed along the lines of an English park by Adolphe Alphand. The famous Longchamp Racecourse was built between 1855 and 1858 and the park was the location for the Summer Olympics in 1900. The Bois de Boulogne officially became part of the City of Paris in 1929. The northern part of it houses the Jardin d’Acclimatation which is an amusement park, while the Pré Catelan is a self-contained little park which boasts the widest beech tree in Paris. The Bagatelle Gardens contain a number of architectural follies and a famous rose garden, as well as the lovely château. The Bois is a sleazy red-light district at night and best avoided.