Promenade Plantée
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Green walk

The Promenade Plantée (M° Bastille/Ledru-Rollin), also known as the Coulée Verte, is an excellent way to see a little-visited part of the city – and from an unusual angle. This stretch of disused railway line, much of it along a viaduct, has been ingeniously converted into an elevated walkway and planted with a profusion of trees and flowers – cherry trees, maples, limes, roses and lavender. The walkway starts near the beginning of avenue Daumesnil, just south of the Bastille opera house, and is reached via a flight of stone steps – or lifts – with a number of similar access points all the way along. It takes you to the Parc de Reuilly, then descends to ground level and continues nearly as far as the périphérique, from where you can follow signs to the Bois de Vincennes. The whole walk is around 4.5km long, but if you don't feel like doing the entire thing you could just walk the first part – along the viaduct – which also happens to be the most attractive stretch, running past venerable old mansion blocks and giving you a bird's eye view of the street below. Small architectural details such as decorative mouldings and elaborate wrought-iron balconies that you wouldn't normally notice at street level come to light – the oddest sight are the caryatids adorning the police station at the end of the avenue Daumesnil stretch of the walkway.

The arches of the viaduct itself have had their red brickwork scrubbed clean and have been converted into attractive spaces for artisans' studios and craftshops, collectively known as the Viaduc des Arts. The workshops house a wealth of creativity: furniture and tapestry restorers, interior designers, cabinet makers, violin- and flute-makers, embroiderers and fashion and jewellery designers; a full list and map is available from no. 23 avenue Daumesnil – the location of SEMA (Société d'Encouragement aux Métiers d'Art; Tues–Fri 1–5pm, plus weekends same hours during exhibitions; tel 01.55.78.85.85). The viaduct ends around halfway down avenue Daumesnil, but the Promenade Plantée continues, taking you to the Jardin de Reuilly, an old freight station, now an inviting, circular expanse of lawn, popular with picnickers on sunny days, and bordered by terraces and arbours. The open-air café here makes a good refreshment halt if you're walking the length of the promenade. You can also choose to bypass the park altogether by taking the gracefully arching wooden footbridge that spans it. The next part of the walkway – the allée Vivaldi – is a rather nondescript road lined with modern blocks, but then you enter a tunnel and emerge at the other end in the old railway cutting, a delightful stretch that meanders through a canopy of trees and flowers, below the level of the surrounding streets. At this point the path divides into two – one for pedestrians, the other for cyclists – landscaped all along, taking you through the odd ivy-draped, ex-railway tunnel, until you come to a wrought-iron spiral staircase; take this or the right-hand path up to road level, turn right onto the ring road, and then left under the flyover. A right-turn will take you onto busy boulevard de la Guyane, and a short walk along here will eventually bring you to the Bois de Vincennes and the Porte Dorée metro station.