Parc Montsouris

This guide to Parc Montsouris in Paris opens with the park's 1869 debut, when Napoleon III's grand English garden welcomed its first guests to see an artificial lake that three designers had spent years building. You'll hear the legend of what happened to that lake and its engineer, plus the disputes historians raise about when it actually occurred, and about later visitors to the park's pavilion restaurant, from Lenin and Trotsky to Simone de Beauvoir. The park takes its name, Mouse Mountain, from the old windmills and rodents that once plagued the hillside.