Wide tracts of Paris are less than green. A large park is never far off … but often it isn’t nearby, either. I’m thinking of the Marais, and much of the rest of the right bank of the city. Lots of stone and cement.

It’s not as if Paris is Hong Kong, where you can walk for blocks and not see so much as a weed. And Manhattan is probably more concrete-y, too. Not to mention the old center of Abu Dhabi.

The City of Light has some interesting parks near its center. The Luxembourg Gardens are the most prominent, and the Tuilleries and Butte Chaumont are significant, too.

But if you really want to get back to something resembling nature, you need to go east of the city center to the Bois de Vincennes, or west to the Bois de Bologne.

We are staying in the 17th arrondissement, so the latter bois (woods) is closer, and we spent much of a very fine spring day there.

The park is big enough and, in places, wild enough to prompt a person to think they are miles from a population center.

The park is vaguely subdivided by planned activity. Over there are open fields dedicated to sports activities, from cricket to soccer to polo. And over here is just open grass, surrounded by tall old trees, great for picnics or just lying in the grass or sunning.

And the area around the old chateau is known for well-tended gardens: Particularly impressive is the rose garden (pictured above) south of the chateau. The roses are so numerous that you can smell their sweetness long before you reach them.

We took along a bottle of water and some books, and found a bench and just sat and read and enjoyed the fresh air. We walked a bit, and finally found the rose garden, and walked in circles (not on purpose) with the idea of trying to exit the park over by Porte Maillot.

The park has a few wild creatures, too. Most prominent on this occasion were several noisy peacocks (below), one very large  and very regal swan and various little critters we could hear scurrying in the brush.

The park was not crowded, but it was far from empty. It was a Sunday afternoon, and the sun was out and bright, and Parisians flock to the big parks to their east and west. It’s good for the soul, to lie on the grass and look up at a canopy of trees.

It’s easy to forget that certain parts of the Bois de Boulogne are known as a red-light district, especially at night. During a bright Sunday afternoon, it just seemed like a nice, untouched and sprawling bit of nature.