L'Oeil du Lac (Maison du Garde)

The L'Oeil du Lac, or the Guard's House, sits at the edge of Lake Daumesnil in the Bois de Vincennes. Its most distinctive feature is the narrow, stone-faced watchtower that seems to emerge directly from the landscape. Built during the nineteenth century, the structure served as the primary residence for the forest warden. In the eighteen sixties, when Napoleon the Third transformed this area into a public park, he placed his guards here to monitor the grounds and manage the new water system.