Nearly 2000 acres of park and playground make up western Paris‘s lungs, well frequented on weekends by the better-heeled inhabitants from nearly Neuilly and the 16th arrondissement. A favorite medieval hunting ground, in the 18th century it became an aristocratic leisure ground. Finally, Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann gave the park the form it has today and made it public. It is awash with lakes, waterfalls, follies, winding paths, and open spaces, with two racetracks : Auteuil and Longchamp. Its noctural users (transvestites, prostitutes) are a very different race from the jogging businessmen of the morning hours.
