While in Paris next month, my wife and I want to take a stroll at Buttes Chaumont. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for must-see spots or best paths around the park? Or, nearby cafes for post-stroll people watching? Merci! D

It is a real nice park, but no real must-sees for me. Just nice to stroll around a bit. There is a reataurant and kiosk in the park itself.

Here an English website about the park: http://www.gardenvisit.com/ge/buttes.htm

It's not very big. Either you follow the path around the outside of the park, or you walk up to the tower on a crag in the middle. I would approach it from metro Botzaris, as you'd mostly be walking downhill.

If you choose to use the Buttes Chaumont metro stop, for pity's sake, FIND THE ELEVATOR!! Don't make the mistake of thinking, "oh a couple flights of stairs, I can do that". It must be 4-6 flights at least.

If you go on a Sunday, take the métro to the Place des Fêtes and pick up a picnic at the market on the square-bread, pâté or other cold cuts, cheese, fruit. From the Place des Fêtes it's 5 or 10 minutes downhill to the park.

Yes a most vertiginous (?) park. last week after i had some knee problems due to a fall i came in at the wrong entrance - the upper entrance and forewent the precipitous downhill spiral from the entrance to the park proper. But a lovely lovely parc.

If it's on a weekend check out a cherished French tradition - the Guignol, or puppet shows for children, in two different places in the park, which once was a desolated area of abandoned quarries and rubbish dumps until Baron Hausmann fashioned today's wonder in the mid-1800s.

Thanks, everyone, for the feedback. We're planning to hit the Parc on about our third or fourth day in Paris, thinking we'll need something a little more "mellow" after a few days of seeing the big sights. One of the guides I have has a Buttes Chaumont walk in it that starts from the Botzaris Metro, so thanks for confirming that recommendation, Patrick. The picnic sounds good, too...Michael, is the market at Place des Fetes only open on Sundays? Thanks again, everybody!

The market is on Monday, Friday and Sunday.