An urban community that nonetheless boasts many green spaces.
With 140 green spaces (parks or gardens) including two large parks and one regional park, you won’t be short of choice for a place to relax and have fun.
Sport and nature
Built in 2013, the Grand parc de Saint-Ouen, stretching across 12 hectares, is the jewel in the crown of the city’s new eco district. It was developed on the banks of the River Seine, replacing the old park and some brownfield land. The park offers visitors many different activities, including climbing walls, a children’s playground and a skate park as well as nature attractions like the educational greenhouses, beehives and allotments.
Not far from there, you will find the parc départemental de l’Ile Saint-Denis covering 23 hectares and offering superb views of the River Seine surrounding the park. It includes spacious playgrounds, wooded areas and shrubbery, which open out into peaceful clearings. The park’s mansion regularly hosts exhibitions and events.
Part of the Natura 2000 network, this park is home to a wide variety of birds, insects and wildlife who are enticed by the grassy areas, copses and flowerbeds as well as by the fauna whose natural habitat is on the banks of the River Seine.
Parks rooted in history
The Jardin Pierre de Montreuil just next to the Saint-Denis Basilica and the Parc de la Légion d’Honneur, the former gardens of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, provide a calm and peaceful environment in the heart of the city centre.
The former gardens of the Abbey are today home to the Maison d’Education de la Légion d’Honneur (The Legion of Honor High School). Seven hectares of the grounds are open to the public. These leafy gardens offer a unique view over the former royal Abbey.
Parks open their gates to art
Nowadays, many works of art are on display in the parks across the city for the viewing pleasure of the people of Plaine Commune and its visitors. In the parc François Mitterrand de Saint-Ouen, a landscaped park covering 1.7 hectares that was designed to manage and recover rain water, parkgoers can gaze at the series of nine bronze sculptures created by the world renowned artist, Guy Ferrer. Each one of the nine statues is both a letter and a figure evoking different spiritualities.
Together, the sculptures make up the word “tolerance”, challenging as such the rise of fundamentalism. This piece forms part of the “Art in the City” walking trail, which takes you by twenty or so works of art displayed in the streets throughout the various districts of Saint-Ouen.
