The original railway line, which ran from Paris to Varenne-Saint-Maur, closed in 1969. The Promenade Plantee was built during a renovation of the area in the 1980s, when landscape architect Jacques Vergely and architect Philippe Mathieux created their idea of an elevated park. Completed in 2000, the park is 2.9 miles long.
As a funny side note, I couldn't remember what the park was called and so I tried asking a local bookstore clerk about it for directions. "It's a park, on a railroad," I mumbled, and at first, she had no idea what I was talking about. She turned around to ask her co-workers, saying "Have you heard of some sort of elevated park?" One of her co-worker knew about it and wrote down directions, saying that it was very beautiful. When I asked if she had ever been there, she said, "No, it's not near where I live. But I've heard it's nice." My husband and I laughed, because we thought that attitude was just like New Yorkers—praising a local attraction, but never having visited because it was too far!
