Bois de Vincennes 4.61

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 the 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.DimensionsThe Bois de Vincennes has a total area of 995 hectares, making it slightly larger than the Bois de Boulogne,, the other great Parisian landscape park located at the western side of the city. It occupies ten percent of the total area of Paris, and is almost as large as the first six arrondissements in the center of the city combined. The Bois de Vincennes is about three times larger than Central Park in New York City, and is slightly larger than Richmond Park in London ; but is smaller than Griffith Park in Los Angeles . Only about half of the Bois de Vincennes is covered with trees.