Archives ¬ > Spring Gardens > Metropuritan, a ticket to well-being > Paris arcades > Davioud lights up the City of Light > Carboard on board > The Transition style, a way between > The road to damask > Rue Dauphine, a modern street in Paris > New decoration materials > Henri IV, king size style > The Seventies are back > In concrete terms > Louis-Philippe style, a first step towards modernity > Revamp! > The style under Louis XIII > Spring decoration > The 6th arrondissement city hall, between solemnity and functionality > The print of Louis XIV on Paris > Symbolic materials > Colours of Autumn > The XVIIth century, a monumental era in Paris > Clothe your windows > "Egyptizing" Paris > Mirror sweet mirror > Baroque, a weapon against the Reformation > Mary had a little lamp > Art deco, symbol of the industrial era > Chippendale style > Perfume’s in the air > The Good, the Bath and the Bubbles > Wax up, doc ? > Harmony at home > Outstanding walls > Rococo on the rocks ! > When steel and stone got married > Oriental carpets > Warm terra cotta > Outdoor pieces of furniture > Neoclassicism, a second artistic Renaissance > Art Nouveau, or the revenge of aestheticism > Lime in first line > Le Corbusier's Revolution > Azulejos : a blueprint for home > The "Empire style", indelible trace of an ephemeral regimen > The parquet floor is laid to stay ! > The ''Haussmanian'' building, a ''Parisian touch'' Spring Gardens When one takes a look at construction works that shape Paris, names of famous buildings often come to mind. As if we were always watching the third floor of buildings to admire a subtle decoration element... But what are the places where we really take our time to look around? Gardens, of course! The desire to create green spaces in our cities dates back to the modern era. The more we pushed away the limits of suburbs; the more we lost the taste of nature ... English influence In the seventeenth century, Robert de Cotte designed the Esplanade des Invalides on the site of the Pre-aux-Clercs. This field for military exercises did not change since its origin. One century later, the landscape architect Carmontelle showed more imagination with the creation of the Parc Monceau and its unlikely Anglo-Chinese style. The english influence – from the great parks of London especially - is still present in two flagship projects of the second half of the nineteenth century: the Parc Montsouris and the Buttes-Chaumont. Works by Jean-Charles Alphand, responsible for a brand new department in charge of Promenades and Parks, invited Parisians to relax. While the Republic established itself, elegant green spaces were no longer the privilege of elite people. The second half of the twentieth century is placed under the sign of conversion. Central halls, slaughterhouses of La Villette, wine warehouses of Bercy and Citroën car factory: several major industrial and commercial sites turn green to the delight of Parisians.