Paris - Buttes Chaumont
 

This has been on my list for years and this just may be the trip that we finally get there (September).

I have asthma, but I am a good level walker (sounds like I don't tilt or fall over..). Stairs and uphill walks can be a pain, so I am wondering if I will be able to enjoy walking through and not have to just do 'baby' walks.

DH is half mountain goat, so he will have no problems. I can sit and wait for him, but I would rather participate.

Thanks,

Nina

I went to Buttes Chaumont once on a field trip when I lived in Paris. I don't think the walking is very intense, but some of it is a bit hilly. If I can remember, the stairs weren't too steep depending on where you start your walk.

Can you start at the top and walk downhill? The métro stop Place des Fêtes is up hill from the park and you arrive at the top of the park. The rest is downhill, all the way to Place du Colonel Fabien.

It's a converted quarry, with a large crag and viewing point in the middle. If you stick to the edges, you're on sloping ground, but not the kind of climb that the crag requires. There is a level area around the lake at the bottom of the slope.

The closest metro stations are Botzaris (from where you would be walking downhill through the park) and Buttes Chaumont - I don't recall how much of a slope there was on that side of the park, but I think it would also be downhill. Place des Fetes is a little further away but as Michael says you would be walking downhill towards the park entrance (by Botzaris metro). To stay on the lower level and enter near the lake, you'd have to walk some distance from Ourcq or Bolivar metro stations (and I'm not sure there isn't some uphill walking at least from Bolivar).

Thanks so much for the detailed information.

Patrick, if we follow your route, where is the Metro stop to leave the area?

Nina

Ah. I should have thought of that. It looks to me as though, if you can't manage to walk back up the slope, you'd have to carry on down to Bolivar as the nearest metro station. Or there are buses from outside the Mairie of the 19th arrondissement at the lower end of the park: the 48 and 60 go around one side of the park between Place des Fetes and the Mairie (past Botzaris metro), the 48 goes on down from the park to the Gare du Nord, while the 75 goes from the mairie along rue Manin on the other side of the park to the Colonel Fabien metro station.

http://www.v1.paris.fr/EN/Visiting/g...s_chaumont.asp

www.mappy.com

www.ratp.info/orienter/cv/cartebus.php

There is a market on Sunday at the Place des Fêtes where you can pick up lunch items and picnic with the Parisians in the park.

Although I must admit that I was having a bad feet day, I did find the park to be very hilly. It is beautiful though. The area around the lake is level but is an old quarry so if you walk down there you will have to walk back up . I did not see any other way out that did not involve a climb of some sort. We spent several hours there.

You do not need to go down all the way to the lake, and besides, the "climb" on the mairie side of the park is gentle and not long.

Thanks for all the great tips (except LarryL)

Sorry, wrong thread.