We can put away our coats and take out our jackets, spring finally made its return a few days ago. It’s time to enjoy the nice weather in Paris!We’d like to share some of our favourite places to go for a walk and admire the beautiful flowering trees.

1. Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral

You can’t visit inside the cathedral as the renovations after the fire are still ongoing, but you can walk around it and admire the spectacular exterior. The surrounding island of Île de la Cité is beautiful, and home to some gorgeous flowering cherry trees!

2. Luxembourg Gardens

The magnificent park is one of the largest in Paris, and a favourite amongst the Parisians. It’s a perfect place to explore with kids. There are puppet shows, beehives, a fantastic play area and you can hire old-fashioned wooden toy boats for the children to push around the pond with long wooden sticks, as french children have been doing for years.

Pull up a chair and enjoy the sun!

3. Tuileries Gardens

The lovely Tuileries Gardens sits between the Louvre Museum and Concorde Square, a perfect place to enjoy a picnic outdoors. There are plenty of chairs in the sun, or benches tucked away in the shade if you prefer. 

Do like the Parisians do, buy a baguette sandwich and a patisserie (or a hot chocolate at the nearby café Angleina if you’re feeling a bit chilly) and head for a stroll in the Tuileries.

4. Jardin des Plantes

Much loved by Parisians, the Jardin des Plantes has been open to the public for 400 years. It’s a lovely place for a walk in early spring, especially if you like flowers, as it is a world class botanical garden offering the widest variety of plants, trees and flowers in Paris. Don’t miss the magnolia trees and the Japanese cherry blossoms.

5. Champ-de-Mars

If you want photos of the Eiffel Tower surrounded by gorgeous blossoms, head for the park of the Champ de Mars at the foot of the tower. The trees are spectacular in early spring, and the backdrop of the tower makes it extra special. If the weather is warm, a picnic by the tower is a real treat!

6. Parc des Buttes-Chaumont

The Buttes-Chaumont, a public park situated in northeastern Paris in the 19th arrondissement. It is actually the steepest and largest of all the gardens in Paris. It is a masterpiece of landscape art under Napoleon III, with its 25 hectares. The park is an ode to France and its landscapes, from the cliffs of Étretat to alpine meadows and Mediterranean groves reconstituted from scratch.

In the middle of the lake stands a rocky island. It reveals the romantic Temple of Sybil, which occupies the exact location of the former open-air quarry. It is a replica of the Tivoli temple, designed by the architect Davioud in 1869. This temple can be accessed by the "suspended footbridge" on one side, and on the other by a stone bridge.

Place Armand-Carrel, 75019

7. Parc Monceau

This is a public park situated in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, at the junction of Boulevard de Courcelles, Rue de Prony and Rue Georges Berger. 

The park is unusual in France due to its “English” style: its informal layout, curved walkways and randomly placed statues distinguish it from the more traditional, French-style garden. It includes a collection of scaled-down architectural features, or follies - including an Egyptian pyramid, a Chinese fort, a Dutch windmill and Corinthian pillars. 

Parc Monceau includes statues of famous French figures including Guy de Maupassant, Frédéric Chopin, Charles Gounod, Ambroise Thomas, Alfred de Musset and Edouard Pailleron.

Today the park has play areas for children and remains very popular with local residents and their families. The site is an active free wi-fi area for computer users looking for internet access.

Parc Monceau is open daily from sunrise to sunset, with extended hours in the summer months. There are nine gated entries that are monitored by a fifth-generation park watchman who lives above the royal rotunda at the north entrance.