Bois de Vincennes

Bois de Vincennes in Paris carries the story of Mata Hari, the Dutch-born dancer and courtesan convicted by a French military tribunal in 1917 of spying for Germany, on evidence her own accusers privately called worthless. The guide follows her transformation from Margaretha Zelle into one of the era's most notorious figures, and the early morning she was brought to a clearing inside these grounds. It also traces the park's older life as a royal hunting ground turned into a Haussmann-era public garden for working-class east Paris. Listen for how quietly the forest holds both the picnickers and the history beneath it.