The Bois de Vincennes located on the eastern edge of Paris, is the largest public park in the city. It was created between 1855 and 1866 by Emperor Napoleon III.

The park is next to the Château de Vincennes, a former residence of the Kings of France. It contains an English landscape garden with four lakes; a zoo; an arboretum; a botanical garden; a hippodrome or horse-racing track; a velodrome for bicycle races; and the campus of the French national institute of sports and physical education. The park is known for prostitution after dark.

Long before that it had been a hunting park for the Medieval Kings of France, who resided at the Château de Vincennes on the northern border of the park. As well as the Paris Zoo there’s also the Parc Floral, a 31-hectare botanical attraction that has a sculpture garden with works by Alexander Calder and Alberto Giacometti.