Jardin des Bagatelles: Heaven Just Outside of Paris

For several years, a friend of mine has been telling me about a park where she and her boyfriend like to go. She would tell me it has a wonderful restaurant where she hopes to host a party one day and that it is truly one of the most beautiful and peaceful places in the Paris region. By chance, a couple of weeks ago I was getting together with a bunch of friends who in a very roundabout way all ended up en route to this very park. To get there, we had to drive a long way through the Bois de Boulogne, as the signage to get there is not great (it probably didn’t help that we didn’t yet know the name of the place). At last we arrived at the Parc des Bagatelles where the first thing that struck me  was that there was an entry fee of 5.50€. Little did I know that this would be a small price to pay for what lies beyond the grille.

We didn’t know exactly where my friend and her family were, so we headed first through the café area, which led us to a magnificent long garden with archways of climbing flowers. We all just kept repeating “c’est magnifique ici”. Beyond the garden was an orangerie and then a truly stunning rose garden where people were spotted stopping every few feet to take a good deep sniff. Just before we could go over there ourselves, our friend called and redirected us to a grassy area where they were settled beneath a tree. Snapping just a few photos from a distance, I vowed to return to this place as soon as I possible could.

Fast forward to a week later, when a friend with a car planned to pop in to Paris. I immediately suggested we have a picnic in this new glorious place I had discovered. My friend was game, so I grabbed us some fresh summer produce and together we headed to western Paris and rather blindly navigated our way through the Bois de Boulogne back to the Jardin des Bagatelles. My friend was just as stupefied as I by the park’s beauty. One of our favorite parts was the visitors we had while enjoying our picnic… yep, there were several male peacocks wandering around the grounds looking for something for something to eat, and I assume a little something for the chicks we saw later on with their mom.

On our way out, we made plans to come again before too long, especially after having seen the map of the park and realizing we had seen less than half of it… and is that another rose garden I see on there? My goodness, I can’t wait to get back for more of this place. Well worth the entry fee and more.