Vélodrome Buffalo and Stade Buffalo

The Vélodrome Buffalo in Neuilly-sur-Seine gained its name from a surprisingly American origin. It was built on the exact grounds where Buffalo Bill Cody held his famous Wild West Show during the Paris Exposition of eighteen eighty-nine. The site required massive infrastructure for that spectacle, including its own electrical plant, which developers later repurposed to build one of the city's premier cycling tracks. When it opened in eighteen ninety-three, the track became a magnet for elite cyclists and world-record seekers. The French rider Henri Desgrange established the first ratified one-hour world record here, covering over thirty-five kilometers in a single hour. The venue attracted so many spectators that it became a hub for Parisian sporting culture, drawing figures like the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who frequented the races and captured its atmosphere in his work. The track underwent a significant transformation in nineteen zero-two, when the original cement surface was replaced with wooden slats arranged in a way that made the track faster and smoother for riders. However, the venue was short-lived as a sporting arena. Because it sat within a restricted military zone surrounding the capital, the military governor ordered its destruction at the outbreak of the First World War in August nineteen fourteen. The remains were later cleared to make room for an aircraft engine factory to support the war effort.