Features
At the north end of the Bois de Vincennes stands the Château de Vincennes, which used to be a favorite second home for many 14th century kings. Now in renovation, it is still open to the public. In the southwest of the park stands the Redoute de Gravelle, a military redoubt constructed under the reign of Louis-Philippe in the 19th century.
The Bois de Vincennes is home to several sports venues. In the eastern part lies a hippodrome specialising in trotting races. There is also a velodrome, and the French national institute of sports and physical education.
In the west is a 14.5ha zoo, permanently established in 1934 in place of a smaller, temporary zoo constructed for the 1931 Exposition coloniale internationale. The zoo breeds Asian elephants, and its most notable feature is a 65m high monolith, home to a herd of mouflons.
The Arboretum de l'École du Breuil, in the park's southeast corner, is a municipal arboretum established on this location in 1936.
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“The features of our face are hardly more than gestures which force of habit made permanent. Nature, like the destruction of Pompeii, like the metamorphosis of a nymph into a tree, has arrested us in an accustomed movement.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
““It looks as if
Some pallid thing had squashed its features flat
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Or broken its white neck of mushroom stuff
Short off, and died against the windowpane.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
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—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)