Les îles du Lac Daumesnil

The islands of Lac Daumesnil emerged from a massive nineteenth century engineering project ordered by Emperor Napoleon the Third. Between eighteen fifty-five and eighteen sixty-six, designers transformed what had been a royal hunting forest into an accessible public park modeled after the English landscape style. They hollowed out twelve hectares of land to create the lake, using the displaced earth to form the Ile de Reuilly and the Ile de Bercy. These islands were central to a vision of providing open, green spaces for the working-class residents of eastern Paris.