The Villette Park is the largest green area in Paris. It occupies a space measuring 35 hectares and within it you can find many points of interest.
The park is situated in an area that until 1974 was used by the municipal slaughterhouses. These slaughterhouses had been up and running since 1867, in the period of Napoleon III.
In 1979 the idea came up of rehabilitating this large abandoned space. The project had three basic objectives. The first included the construction of facilities dedicated exclusively to music. The second was a science and technology museum. And the third was the creation of an urban park open to all.
Once the objectives were made clear, a tender was put out for the projects. The winner was Bernard Tschumi. His project managed to join old buildings with other new ones, joined mineral with plant elements and managed to form a whole with nature and the city.
Villette Park has 10 thematic gardens. Among them feature the Garden of Mirrors, the Garden of Dunes, the garden of the Dragon and the Garden of Bamboo. You can also relax in one of its two large lawns bordered by trees.
You can lose yourself in the many corners of this park and there are a lot of cultural activities scheduled in its many buildings. Among these features the Grande Halle, which was built in 1867 and rehabilitated in the 1980s as a multi-use hall for shows. You can also see the Maison de la Villette, which was the former Rotunda of the Vets in the times when it functioned as a slaughterhouse. Today it is an exhibition hall and a space for children’s activities. Other pavilions in the park are the Charolais, Janvier, Maquettes and París-Villette theatre.
Another point of interest in the park is the City of Sciences and Industry, a pavilion designed by Adrien Fainsilber. The space is dedicated especially to children and teenagers to arouse in them an interest in sciences. Here you will come across permanent exhibitions about image, sound, mathematics and energy. It also has a cinema, planetarium, auditorium and media library.
A must visit is to the Géoda, a giant sphere measuring 36 metres in diameter covered with panels of stainless steel. Inside is a cinema theatre with a giant screen of 1,000 square metres and 180 degrees, which combines visual and sound effects. Watching a film here is a really fantastic experience.
As regards the areas dedicated to music, the newest addition to the park is the City of Music, which includes an amphitheatre, a concert hall, workshops, exhibitions and Music Museum. Also here is the National Conservatory of Music and Dance of Paris.
Without doubt, a space for spending a whole day having fun and playing with science, music, cinema and nature.
